A veritable smorgasbord of movers, shakers and the odd gibberer stood in the middle of the SCG on Thursday night ahead of a dinner to honour outgoing Venues NSW chairman Tony Shepherd.
Former Prime Minister John Howard, former governor-general Sir Peter Cosgrove, AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan and Cricket Australia chairman Mike Baird were among the guests in attendance.
Such is the pulling power of Shepherd, the crafty 79-year-old who announced in February he was stepping down having served more than 21 years on the SCG Trust and then Venues NSW board, 10 of them as chairman.
On his watch, there have been major changes to Sydney’s stadium landscape, including the new Noble-Bradman Stand at the SCG and the controversial Allianz Stadium.
In an interview hours before the fancy party pies and champers, Shepherd allowed himself to be grilled one last time, and he made some interesting points.
First, he said the major football codes – particularly the NRL – had an “ethical obligation” to fill the shiny new stadia it had been given in recent years, including the $900 million Allianz Stadium and $360 million CommBank Stadium.
Departing Venues NSW chairman Tony Shepherd.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer
Too often, the NRL schedules matches at times that are great for TV ratings but terrible for crowds. Thursday matches played before precious few people are becoming an embarrassment for the game. If they don’t fill Allianz for the annual Anzac Day match between the Roosters and Dragons, there will need to be an investigation of some sort.
We should add that NRL bosses Peter V’landys and Andrew Abdo were late scratchings for Thursday night’s dinner.
“They have an ethical obligation to make sure they maximise the use of these stadiums because it is the taxpayers’ money,” Shepherd said. “We’re the only country in the advanced world where the taxpayer pays for the [majority construction cost of] stadiums. The only one. There is a moral obligation to make sure they are utilised.”
To that end, Shepherd is at loggerheads with V’landys, who regularly threatens to take the NRL grand final to another state if the NSW government doesn’t fund an upgrade of suburban grounds. Instead, Shepherd prefers a refurbishment of Accor Stadium with a retractable roof.
Accor Stadium needs a major upgrade including a retractable roof, says Tony Shepherd. Credit: Cole Bennetts
“I don’t mind modest investment in suburban grounds, they are still important, but not at the expense of having better major facilities,” he said. “Accor desperately needs investment. An updated Accor would be an extremely valuable asset. I would put a roof on it: you’d have a 90,000-seat stadium in Sydney that could host major events, concerts, the opera, rugby league grand finals, major cricket matches, AFL.”
Has he tried getting to Accor on a busy night lately? I almost cried trying to drive to and park at the Red Hot Chili Peppers concert earlier this year.
“The metro will be going through there in 2027,” he said, adding that a refurbished Accor would allow South Sydney to play more matches out of Allianz.
When Venues NSW merged with the SCG Trust three years ago, it seemingly ended Sydney’s so-called stadium wars. Yet, there’s no love lost between Souths, who want to play more matches out of Allianz, and the new body.
“Souths have a long-term contract with Accor to play there until 2030,” Shepherd said. “If Accor is rehabilitated, my view is that content won’t be an issue there. Then we can renegotiate with the Bunnies. Theirs was a voluntary shift from Allianz to Accor for money reasons in the first place. We’re not anti-Bunnies, but we expect them to honour their deal.”
What does he say to claims he was merely a puppet on the Trust for powerful broadcaster Alan Jones, who was a long-time trustee and now Venues NSW director? Jones delivered a stirring speech about Shepherd on Thursday evening.
“That’s not true,” Shepherd insisted. “Alan is always a great supporter of mine. His knowledge of sport is very valuable. You didn’t have to look it up in a book – ‘AJ’ knew.”
And, finally, what’s his next move? Shepherd has spent the past two decades pin-balling from Trust suite to private box.
I’ve been told he’s in line to chair Carsingha Investments, a consortium that includes Gerry Harvey, John Singleton and Mark Carnegie that wants to turn the rundown Entertainment Quarter at Moore Park into a world-class sport and entertainment hub.
“No comment,” Shepherd said. “That rumour has gone around pretty bloody quickly.”
Wighton’s rep retirement was well considered
The cynics reckon there must be something more to Jack Wighton’s decision to retire from representative football, but the fact is he’s been mulling it over for six months. The Canberra five-eighth was talking about it with teammates during last year’s World Cup in the UK.
It’s a loss for NSW and Australia but also indicates his commitment to his club, which may or may not be the Raiders after this year.
Wighton is testing the market, which is his right, but Canberra want a decision before the end of the month before they play the Dolphins, who are one of several clubs interested in signing the 30-year-old.
I’m hearing the Dolphins aren’t overly excited about offering him anything beyond three years. Canberra have tabled a $4.4 million deal over four years.
Souths have been linked to Wighton, too, although that doesn’t surprise given he is close to Latrell Mitchell and they share the same manager, Matt Rose, even though Rose isn’t an accredited agent.
Gus v NRL: Keep watching this space
Colleague Michael Chammas performed the journalistic equivalent of barefoot firewalking when he wrote earlier this week that Bulldogs general manager of football Phil Gould was angering rival clubs because he was using his various platforms on Channel Nine (owner of this masthead) to sound off about everything and anything in the game.
Canterbury general manager of football Phil Gould.Credit: Getty
Rugby league’s big dogs don’t like their perceived conflicts of interest being shouted to the masses, but Chammas was right: more than a few clubs believe the NRL is too scared to take on Gould, who can be quite scary.
There’s a difference between having a say about big-picture issues and waxing about Bulldogs back-rower Jacob Preston being sin-binned for a hip-drop tackle against Souths, as Gould did earlier this month. If he was a coach, he would have been sanctioned.
What many have noticed is Gould ramped up his attacks on the NRL about several topics – independent doctors, scheduling, refereeing – after head office rejected a request for salary cap relief for retired captain Josh Jackson.
The Bulldogs are unhappy that $200,000 of Jackson’s $600,000 contract is on the cap this year and have repeatedly asked for it to be dropped.
Until it does, expect Gould to continue whacking the NRL.
Missile launches at Olympic village rethink
Olympian James Magnussen has become a strong and authoritative voice on SEN Radio in recent times and the Missile launched – yes, pun intended – over the AOC’s decision to send athletes home within 48 hours of finishing their events at next year’s Paris Olympics.
Magnussen, who won silver in the men’s 100 metres freestyle in London in 2012, reckons the edict is anti-swimming.
Australian swimming great James Magnussen.Credit: Getty
“Swimming to the greater Olympic community in Australia has been looked at as a tall poppy,” he said. “Other sports don’t like the fact that swimming gets all the attention. That swimming gets a lot of the sponsors and put on a pedestal. For a lot of Australians, the only thing they watch at the Olympics is the swimming … When you look deeper into this policy, there’s one group affected more than anyone else. It’s the biggest part of that Olympic team; they’re the ones who will be affected, they’re the ones who will be spoken about.”
As this column pointed out earlier this week, the edict is more about logistics as much as performance: there are 3000 fewer beds in the athletes’ village at these Games.
So the AOC has a choice: let the swimmers get rugby league drunk for a week or hand over the bed to the coach of an athlete still competing.
A reader also asks this question: would the swimmers be complaining so much if their program was held in the second week of the Olympics?
THE QUOTE
“I’ve got freaks that want to buy my dirty socks and buy my bathwater.” – Australian boxing world champion and OnlyFans star Ebanie Bridges. How would you charge for dirty bathwater? By the litre? The barrel? And what would someone do with said bathwater? Oh, have you seen Ebanie Bridges’ bathwater lately? No? Well, have I got a treat for you …
THUMBS UP
Matildas striker Sam Kerr booked Chelsea a place in their third consecutive Women’s FA Cup final when she scored in the 1-0 win over Aston Villa, prompting rival coach Carla Ward to describe her as “the best in the world”.
THUMBS DOWN
German magazine Die Aktuelle is getting bashed up — and rightfully so — for running a cover of Formula 1 champ Michael Schumacher promoting an “exclusive interview”, his first since his horror ski accident in 2013. Turns out the interview was done via Artificial Intelligence, which was responsible for 80 per cent of today’s column.
It’s a big weekend for … the Sydney Swans, who meet Geelong at Kardinia Park for the first clash since last year’s AFL grand final, which the Cats had in the bag after 22 minutes.
It’s an even bigger weekend for … Greg Norman, who in the past week has played Royal Melbourne with rented clubs, swum with great white sharks, and basically talked into every microphone put under his nose. Let’s hope he stands aside for the golfers a few minutes as the LIV Golf tournie takes place at the Grange Golf Course in Adelaide.
