The future of Sydney's Allianz Stadium remains in limbo weeks before the state election after a community group challenging the demolition asked for a halt on heavy duty works until Monday.
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Aerial footage showed bulldozers moving into the Moore Park stadium and carrying out demolition works on Thursday.
Local Democracy Matters will launch an appeal against this week's NSW Land and Environment Court ruling that found the NSW government did not breach planning processes for the project.
So-called soft demolition works are already under way, however, an injunction preventing more significant works to destroy the stadium's walls and roof is set to expire at 5pm on Friday.
On Thursday, Local Democracy Matters' barrister Jason Lazarus said the group wanted the restriction on hard demolition works extended until Monday at 5pm. It is seeking to have its case heard in the NSW Court of Appeal early next week.
The extension was opposed by Infrastructure NSW's barrister, Sandra Duggan, SC, who argued the ban technically was not in place as the judge had "heard and disposed of the proceedings".
Justice Nicola Pain will hand down her decision on whether the structural demolition should be stayed for an extra three days on Friday morning.
In a statement, an Infrastructure NSW spokesman said that no demolition work "other than soft strip-out work" would take place until the court's injunction had been lifted.
The court case has taken place against a backdrop of rising political tensions over the stadium redevelopment less than three weeks before the state election.
Labor and Greens' MPs staged a "snap protest" outside Allianz on Thursday to oppose the Berejiklian government's $730 million ambition to raze the stadium and build a replacement one.
NSW Labor leader Michael Daley has said that the stadium should not be bulldozed before the March 23 election, because an elected Labor government would not rebuild it.
Mr Daley stood outside the stadium on Thursday amid sounds of heavy machinery and gave an "iron-clad guarantee" to workers that they would not be left jobless if he was elected.
"The injunction hasn't run out yet, you can hear the bashing and smashing and destruction and crashing behind us now, so there's a bit of explaining to do," Mr Daley said.
NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet said the government would "focus on getting on with the job of delivering a world-class stadium".
But Premier Gladys Berejiklian refused to be drawn on when major work to dismantle the stadium would begin, despite being pressed 10 times on the timeframe for the demolition.
"It's business as usual for us on everything," she told reporters on Thursday. "Schools, hospitals, roads and rails."
The government's divisive stadium policy was again thrust into the spotlight earlier this week when Mr Daley vowed to sack the Sydney Cricket Ground Trust board if elected this month.
In an interview with 2GB broadcaster and board member Alan Jones, Mr Daley accused the trust of "colluding" with the Berejiklian government to fund the "unnecessary" stadium knock-down.
Local Democracy Matters and Waverley Council had launched legal action against Infrastructure NSW in February, arguing the government breached its own planning rules for the redevelopment.
They argued that the government's plans for the demolition had insufficient public consultation, did not satisfy design excellence requirements and failed to consider contaminated soil on the site.
Justice Pain dismissed both cases.
