'Telstra is a huge opportunity' - Ken Edwards

Ken Edwards, the chief executive of the Telstra Stadium, expects international cricket matches at the Olympic venue to be sellouts and thinks that the state-of-the-art arena will appeal to more than two million fans from Western Sydney.

The Telstra Stadium has been chasing the rights to stage Test and one-dayers from next year, sparking outrage from traditionalists who have said that cricket should never leave the SCG.

Edwards said that rugby league, rugby union and Australian Rules had all benefited immensely from playing marquee matches at the 80,000-capacity stadium, which has almost twice as many people as the SCG. "There is a very real opportunity to grow the game in Australia's largest city - one that hasn't been recognised, let alone seized on, by the SCG Trust.

"We estimate there are over two million Sydneysiders, living west of Sydney Olympic Park who do not go to cricket at the SCG - it's too far away and too hard to get to."

According to Edwards, the ARU, NRL and AFL relocated games to a better venue since they had identified the potential for growth with such a move. "Their faith has been borne out by the outstanding results they have achieved at Telstra Stadium in the last five years, with record crowds being set. The ARU and NRL have both set world record crowds for their games. The Swans have set a record crowd for AFL outside Victoria and last year had the highest attendance at a regular season game across the entire AFL competition."

In a report that Edwards presented, he also mentioned that an average crowd of more than 80,000 had attended the 18 rugby Tests held at Telstra since 1999. He said 700,000 more fans had seen live rugby Tests than otherwise would have been the case.