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Allianz Stadium hit by seating issues

Venues NSW, owner and operator of Allianz Stadium, has said it has offered to compensate fans who were affected by faulty seats at the opening of the new-look venue in Sydney.

Allianz Stadium on Friday staged its first major event following a A$874m (£515.9m/€595.7m/$595.2m) revamp, with the Sydney Roosters claiming a 26-16 NRL Premiership win at their new home over the South Sydney Rabbitohs.

A crowd of 41,906 watched on in what was a rugby league double-header, with the Roosters earlier securing a 34-6 women’s NRLW win over the St. George Illawarra Dragons. The new Allianz Stadium opened with a triple-header of sporting events.

Following the rugby league games, Australia’s men’s rugby union team, the Wallabies, took on South Africa on Saturday, while the action was rounded off yesterday (Tuesday) when Australia’s women’s football team took on Canada in a friendly match.

However, after the opening weekend of games there were complaints from some fans that they weren’t able to use their seats properly. Ameer Ibrahim, who was at Saturday’s rugby union fixture, told Australian broadcaster the ABC he had issues as soon as he sat down.

“They were tilting forward from the moment we got there, and it progressively got worse as the game went on, and we were literally holding up the seats with our feet, almost like doing a wall sit for the first half,” Ibrahim said.

“To have a rest from the chairs, we got up and moved around at half-time and then towards the end of the game, we left early. I was getting a sore bottom and quads from holding the seat up. The row in front of us was also broken.”

Greg Shaw, who was at the same game, added: “The seats threw us forward and we crouched on our knees. Whoever put them in didn’t secure them properly, or maybe they can’t hold adults because we weren’t the only group that had the same problem.”

In response to the issues, a Venues NSW spokesperson said: “A small number of seats were not affixed correctly. We relocated patrons where possible on the night and have also offered refunds or tickets to future events.”

Image: Allianz Stadium