ACT government wanted significant Commonwealth funding in World Cup bid

ACT cabinet documents from 2010 have revealed the extent to which the territory government was worried about the cost of hosting, arguably, the world's biggest sporting event.

The territory government had expressed significant concerns about the cost as Canberra would have needed a new stadium in order to be included but the federal government wanted the national capital to be a host city.

Cabinet documents from March 2010 showed the ACT wanted to settle an agreement with the Commonwealth that the territory's costs in hosting the World Cup were capped at $100 million.

The ACT cabinet considered a joint-funding arrangement where the territory spent more than $160 million as "unacceptable".

"In short, the ACT government's position is that the Commonwealth's present cost sharing proposal presents too many risks and represents too high a price to pay for such a small jurisdiction," documents said.

Documents showed ACT officials had raised a number of issues with the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, saying the cost/benefit analysis was "particularly problematic" for the territory.

"The current financial position of the ACT is not strong and there are many other priorities ahead of the World Cup bid," documents said.

"There is no pressing need to build a new stadium in the ACT - let alone a 40,000-plus seat stadium which would be too big for our needs."

Ultimately, the ACT government and the Commonwealth came to an agreement for a new $270 million rectangular, 40,000-seat stadium in the event of a successful bid. This was reported in The Canberra Times in May 2010.

The ACT government would have contributed $100 million to its construction. The new stadium would have been located adjacent to the existing stadium in Bruce.

MORE A.C.T. CABINET DOCUMENTS:

Australia withdrew its bid for the 2018 World Cup in June but continued to pursue the 2022 event, which it lost to Qatar.

Australia will host the FIFA women's World Cup next year but Canberra will not host any games as Chief Minister Andrew Barr said "the cost was exorbitant".

"It would have been amongst the most expensive events event run in the ACT," Mr Barr said last year.

A new Canberra stadium has also been pushed to the side, with the major infrastructure project likely to not be made a priority until after 2025.

The cost of a new stadium will also be substantially higher than it was 10 years ago. A government-commissioned feasibility study found that a new stadium would cost about $645 million if its opened by 2032.

The preferred located for a new stadium now is in the city.

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