Sydney's hosting of the Catholic World Youth Day celebrations will cost the NSW government at least $30 million and attract more than 200,000 international visitors.NSW Finance Minister John Watkins said the state government's budget for the event, to be held in July next year at Sydney's Randwick Racecourse, was yet to be "absolutely finalised" but it would be a "substantial amount".
He went on to say the NSW government's bill would at least match the $30 million in funding by the federal government.
"We're expecting about 200,000 visitors from overseas as pilgrims, registered pilgrims to the event," Mr Watkins told the NSW budget estimates committee.
"We'll be expecting tens of thousands of visitors interstate. With that comes substantial cost because there are four or five major events in that week, culminating in the mass at Randwick."
"The federal government has announced $30 million, the state government figure will be at least that."
But he said it was anticipated that the event, which includes a papal visit, will inject about $150 million into the NSW economy.
Mr Watkins said the budget could not be finalised because there was a "couple of matters still outstanding".
Those matters include compensation to be paid to the Australian Jockey Club (AJC) and the horse trainers based at Randwick Racecourse.
He said the negotiations were ongoing and the amount of compensation paid will depend on how many days World Youth Day organisers would need the site.
Negotiations were looking at a range of options from three days to 25.
Mr Watkins said the government was very conscious of the need to ensure that Randwick was available for the spring carnival next year, after this year's carnival was destroyed by horse flu.
"That's why we are looking at a number of measures to protect the track surface and to ensure all required movement is off the site to enable there to be a successful next year," Mr Watkins said.
He said Randwick was the only viable option of 19 or so venues canvassed to house the 500,000 people expected for the papal mass.
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