Cowboys statement on Round 3 availability

COWBOYS STATEMENT ON ROUND 3 VENUE AVAILABILITY

On behalf of the North Queensland Toyota Cowboys, Chief Executive Officer Peter Jourdain issued this statement today:
 
Further to reports in today's Townsville Bulletin, the North Queensland Toyota Cowboys confirm that the club could be forced to move their 2011 Cowboys v Storm home game from Dairy Farmers Stadium.
 
As primary tenant at Dairy Farmers Stadium, the Cowboys were only advised by Stadiums Queensland of the unavailability of the venue for the Round 3 match scheduled against the Melbourne Storm (weekend of 25-28 March) by letter, one day prior to the release of the NRL draw.
 
Although Stadiums Queensland advised the NRL of another venue booking (Nitro Circus) in May 2010, they did not advise us until 6 October.
 
NRL chief operating officer Graham Annersley advised Stadiums Queensland in May to notify the Cowboys to enable us to submit a draw request for an away game and avoid a venue clash.

The Cowboys maintain that all correspondence regarding venue availability should have been directed to the club as lessee.
 
Discussions with Stadiums Queensland to resolve the error have not achieved a desirable result for the club to date, with the only solution offered by the venue being that the Cowboys should request for the match to be played on Monday 28 March.
 
The Cowboys consider this to be an unviable solution for two key reasons:
1. The Nitro Circus event is scheduled for Saturday 26 March, but with a 24-hour