“I’m certainly aware of Olivia Dean, and my daughter is a huge fan,” V’landys said on Thursday.
“To have someone of the brilliance of Olivia Dean would be fantastic. We know she’ll be in town, and we’ll be reaching out to her people.
“Naturally, you want to make grand final day an actual event that includes excellent entertainment. Olivia fits that bills. If you want top musicians, you have to pay accordingly.
“But I’m also a firm believer that NRL fans actually go to the NRL grand final to watch rugby league.
“If you’re talking about spending $2m for an artist to play for around 10 minutes, you’d be better off spend that money on junior development.
“I don’t know what the AFL have spent on getting Kylie, but the reports last year were … Snoop Dogg cost more than $2m. That’s a lot of money. Plus, we had Kylie perform at the 1986 NSWRL Grand Final. It’s only taken the AFL 40 years to catch up.
“Either way, we’d love an artist like Olivia. We won’t leave it until the last minute.”
Multiple sources with knowledge of the situation, not authorised to speak publicly, confirmed Snoop Dogg cost around $2.5m to play at last year’s AFL decider, but a lot of those expenses were covered by sponsors. The huge outlay on previous artists like Robbie Williams and The Killers has also made it easier for the code to attract huge artists.
Music industry sources confirmed Teddy Swims, whose song Lose Control went No. 1 in Australia and around the world, cost the NRL south of $400,000.
Foo Fighters are heading to Australia for a string of stadium dates, but do not arrive until the end of October. Country megastar Morgan Wallen has also hinted for several months that he is returning to Australia but, even if he is available, is expected to be well beyond the NRL’s budget.
