Origin: Game Three created $17 Million for Victoria

[Queenslander]

Origin Makes Victoria $17 Million
Wednesday, September 27, 2006 - 3:08 PM

This year?s State of Origin deciding match in Melbourne provided an economic boom for the city with over 16,000 thousand inter-state visitors contributing to more than $17 million into the Victorian economy.

Premier Steve Bracks today announced the economic impact of the July State of Origin match as he watched a Melbourne Storm training session ahead of this Sunday?s NRL Grand Final.

?Melbourne and 16,113 interstate visitors got behind the State of Origin decider this year and now more than ever we need to get behind the Melbourne Storm as they take on the Brisbane Broncos in Sunday night?s grand final,? Mr Bracks said.

?The deciding match played at Telstra Dome in July saw a total crowd of 54, 833 people support the two teams and a total economic impact of $17.8 million overall.

?Major events are big business for Victoria contributing over $1 billion each year to our economy.

?We are the events capital of Australia, rated number one in the recent national Brand Health survey, and we have proven time and time again that we do them better than anyone.

?Importantly, more rugby league events have been secured by the Government, through the Victorian Major Events Company, including a Gillette Tri Nations game in October 2006, another State of Origin match in 2009 or 2010 and an international match, possibly a World Cup game, in 2008,? he said.

Mr Bracks said the Government was strongly supporting Rugby League in Victoria with the construction of a $100 million rectangular stadium at Melbourne Park to host.

?In the recent budget we also allocated an additional $52 million to major events to ensure we keep the events we have and attract new ones in the future,? Mr Bracks said.

?Major events are our Opera House or Great Barrier Reef and are not only extremely important economically to the State but also provide great entertainment for Victorians.?

The economic impact study was done by Ernst and Young.

Source: NRL

[Steelers]

Awesome news that the Victorian is getting behind Rugby League so much

[zacaroo]

nice amount of revenue just from the one game..

[Enzo]

Hopefully that will urge the Victorian Government to invest more into rugby league in Victoria. Once we break into the AFL capital the rest of Australia will go along. Then we can expand the NRL to more than just the East Coast.

[Poida]

even better for the huge majority of us was the result

[Enzo]

Oh yes, the only result that could top it would be the Broncos getting up on Sunday.

[Poida]

lol would top it for broncos fans but they both will go good for queensland rugby league

[.Stormer.]

We'd rather invest in the AFL thank you very much

[Enzo]

Your in the wrong forum them mate.

[.Stormer.]

Yeah true.

[~Wild Child~]

:!: $17 Million dollars is a huge effort...Well done Victoria

[Poida]

yes well done victoria. i had a feeling this game would be a success.