NRL could turn to Canberra Stadium to solve FIFA Women's World Cup chaos

The NRL draw is expected to be released in the second week of November, with Canberra Stadium officials yet to see an early draft.

It will be an especially exciting fixture list for the Green Machine, with its inaugural NRLW draw expected to be released at the same time.

But the FIFA Women's World Cup, to be held in Australia and New Zealand in July and August next year, is set to cause havoc with ground availability in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.

Not only does FIFA take control of the grounds during the tournament, which runs from July 20 to August 20, but the hosting agreement also means nothing can be played at a World Cup venue in the 28 days leading up to the first game played there and five days after the last.

It's one of the reasons the ACT government didn't bid to lure games to Canberra because it would have left the Raiders without a home ground for more than five weeks during their season.

It could also have affected the ACT Brumbies' ability to host the Super Rugby final, set for June 24.

The NRL won't have access to the Sydney Football Stadium, the Melbourne Storm's home ground, Lang Park in Brisbane and Stadium Australia at Homebush for varying periods of the 2023 season.

Melbourne will be homeless from June 23 to August 20, while the Sydney Roosters will lose theirs from June 22 to August 11.

Stadium Australia only hosts the knockout stages of the World Cup, and will only be unavailable from July 10 to August 25. Lang Park is out from June 24 to August 24.

While Parramatta Stadium and regional Sydney grounds like Leichhardt and Brookvale will be available, the NRL will be without its two major stadiums for large chunks of the back end of the season.

It's an even bigger problem for the Storm, who relocated to Queensland and played home games at the Sunshine Coast during lockdown. They could play games at Docklands - the AFL permitting.

Canberra Stadium could be an option to help fill the void if required.

The Raiders checked with Canberra Stadium about the venue's availability before offering it as an option to the NRL.

Raiders chief executive Don Furner pointed to the fact they had to play home games in Sydney and Queensland during the pandemic.

"There might be some double-headers with the women's game that might happen," he said.

"It won't hurt us adversely. It might end up bringing some more games to Canberra.

"It depends on [ground] availability. It may have to happen [with Sydney clubs playing their games in Canberra]. There may have to be double headers with the NRLW. It remains to be seen, but I know GIO [Stadium's] available so that could happen.

"I'm sure they'd be jumping up and down about that, but we had to go through it ourselves [during COVID]."

The Raiders have put in their draw requests to the NRL, which included playing a game at Wagga Wagga - in the final year of their deal with the Riverina city's council.

They want to play South Sydney and Parramatta - the two biggest drawing away teams in the ACT - at Canberra Stadium.

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The Raiders not only tap into their historical crowd data to determine this, but also which teams Canberrans supported.

They also wanted to retain the eight games they had on free-to-air television this year, especially off the back of their run to the NRL finals.

There was also the Raiders' usual request to play limited night home games during the heart of winter to make sure their fans don't have to brave the bitter cold too often.

But one of the World Cup solutions for the NRL could make those last two requests hard to achieve.

Given the ACT won't host any World Cup matches, that would make the Green Machine playing most of their home games during the soccer lockout an obvious solution - with more away games during the first half of the season.

They'd then spend more time at Canberra Stadium in the run home to finals.

But if those games were played in the Saturday 3pm or Sunday 2pm timeslots then they wouldn't be on free-to-air TV.

"Maybe, they'd have to look at later on in the year when the grounds are unavailable away," Furner said.

"If it's only that month [that the World Cup's on] then it might only be one game [extra at home the Raiders have to play]."

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