Push For Famous Rugby League Stadium To Host Big-name Concerts

Plans are in motion for the homeground of the Manly Sea Eagles to be transformed into a venue fit for massive international rock and pop concerts. 

As News Corp reports, the NRL team's famous Lottoland, formerly known as Brookevale Oval, is being pushed for new developments by council in a bid to bring more revenue to the stadium. 

Staff were reportedly told at a council meeting to come back in March with a briefing.

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Liberal council Rory Amon expressed interest for Lottoland to play host to concerts for a number of names set to tour the country soon such as Foo Fighters, Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran, following plans for Sydney's ANZ and Allianz stadiums to be rebuilt. 

"Those developments were proposed to occur in late 2018 and early 2019. This leaves our city without any major stadiums for an extended period of time," Amon said.

"What that means is there will be a host of sporting and entertainment events that would otherwise occur at Allianz or ANZ which would have been their home.

"With a capacity of over 20,000 and a newly-minted B-Line in operation, Brookvale Oval has the capacity to (substitute) as northern Sydney’s sporting capital while Allianz is rebuilt."

A response issued by chief executive officer Mark Ferguson said the plans to upgrade Lottoland would be dependent on a "range of factors".

"The Brookvale Oval sports field has capacity to meet current regular use, however a major upgrade of the playing surface is required to cope with any significant increase in use, due to the current soil profile and turf species of the playing surface and the need to provide an NRL standard sports field for the Sea Eagles," Ferguson said.

"The scope, cost and timing of such an upgrade is yet to be determined, however this project would be in of order of $1 million."