NSW Sports Minister John Sidoti insists the NRL grand final will continue to be played in Sydney while ANZ Stadium is being redeveloped, with an announcement expected before this year's decider.
With work to begin at ANZ Stadium after next season's Sydney State of Origin fixture, the NRL has already announced that the 2020 grand final will be moved to the SCG but no decision has yet been made about the following year.
The Queensland Government is keen to secure the 2021 grand final while ANZ Stadium and Allianz Stadium are both out of action but NRL CEO Todd Greenberg said there had not been any discussions at this stage about moving a decider from Sydney for the first time in the code's history.
The NRL last year agreed to continue playing the grand final in Sydney until 2042 after the NSW Government committed to redeveloping ANZ Stadium into a rectangular configuration as part of $2 billion upgrade of the city's stadia.
The new Bankwest Stadium at Parramatta opened earlier this year and is set to host home games for the Rabbitohs and Bulldogs while ANZ Stadium is being redeveloped, while Allianz Stadium has been demolished.
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However, the timeline for the re-opening of ANZ Stadium has been pushed back until after the 2021 grand final, while Allianz Stadium is set to be out of action until the 2022 season.
Sidoti said talks were ongoing with the NRL but he refuses to contemplate the grand final being played outside NSW.
"I've said from day one the grand finals are going to be in Sydney, I have been emphatic about that. That has always been my stance and always will be," Sidoti told NRL.com at the launch of the new League Stars program on Tuesday.
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"Why would you want to take it to Queensland. Really, they are kidding. NSW is the best rugby league state in the country, it is the only state to have grand finals and I have not budged one inch.
"We have got a great working relationship with the NRL. They are going to be a main user of our stadiums and the stadiums are purpose-built for rugby league."
Greenberg said he hoped a decision would be announced by the end of the season and insisted the NRL would not consider moving the grand final from Sydney until negotiations with the NSW Government had been exhausted.
"As you'd expect there's an enormous amount of respect that we have for the NSW government given they're spending the best part of $2 billion to build three new stadiums," he said.
"We've said all along that the first discussion will be had with NSW government and that's out of respect for the investment they've made in the stadiums, so that conversation continues," Greenberg said.
"Our conversations with them have been ongoing for a number of weeks and I'm sure we can get to a resolution which will keep everyone happy. We'd like to do it in the next month or two if we can.
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"The reality here is the NSW government are spending $2 billion They're building three stadiums and they're not just stadiums, they're purpose-built rectangular stadiums that are for us for rugby league.
"We want to make sure there's a level of respect that goes with that. In saying all of that though, some of the terms of our MOU have changed. That's created some issues that we need to resolve and they're the discussions we're having.
"Those discussions are sensitive, those discussions are commercial but they're being held in really good regard between the two parties and I'm confident we'll get a good resolution."
