Australian Rugby League Commission Chairman Peter V'Landys remains adamant the New South Wales state government must follow through on their promise to build a new stadium in Penrith.
Speculation built on Thursday afternoon that senior officials within the state government were already calling for premier Dominic Perottet to cancel the rebuild of the stadium after the NRL refused to commit to the grand final being played in the Harbour City beyond 2022.
The decision to host the grand final in Sydney this year came after intense negotiations between New South Wales, Queensland and the NRL.
The contract to hold the grand final in Sydney was originally supposed to run for many years, however, that was broken after the government backed out of plans to upgrade the Olympic Stadium facility at Homebush.
The failure to update the stadium also has the South Sydney Rabbitohs planning to back out of their contract and make the move to a the rebuilt Allianz Stadium at Moore Park from the start of 2023.
Penrith is the only stadium upgrade which has so far been announced, with the government reportedly having previously committed to upgrades at Brookvale, Cronulla and Leichhardt, only for those to be taken off the table on the back of recent flooding around the state.
But V'Landys said the government must stick to their promise for Penrith.
"That would be another broken promise and they would have to explain that to the people of Penrith," V'landys said.
"All their strategies, to be fair to the NSW government, have been to look at investment in Western Sydney.
"It is an investment. It is not a handout.
"I am really very positive that that stadium will be as good as CommBank (in Parramatta), and it will return on investment.
"I would be very surprised if the NSW government reneged on that because they would be reneging on good economic management."
The Penrith stadium is still up in the air over final details, with uncertainty over whether current facilities will be upgraded, or if an all-new stadium will be built on the adjoining site that currently houses the Penrith Paceway.
