The Fitz Files: Those responsible for stadium deterioration must go
By Peter FitzSimons2 March 2018 — 6:00pm
“The Berejiklian government’s reckless stadium splurge must stop,” NSW Opposition Leader Luke Foley thundered this week, as he announced that if #StadiumSplurge was not called off, and he was elected, his government would organise the state equivalent of a royal commission to get to the bottom of the whole sorry debacle. Listen – I think I might have mentioned this? – I agree.
But I am hearing ever stronger rumblings that it won’t come to that. After the smoke has cleared, the most likely result is the government will sue for peace, listen to the people, and come up with a compromise option where it only does one stadium – likely the SFS.
For what it’s worth, I can live with that. On one condition: that the government return to Mike Baird’s original vision whereby one body, and one body alone, is responsible for the state’s major stadiums. But here is the key: this would not mean the SCG Trust taking over the Olympic stadium, too. The government’s starting point must be that if the 30-year-old SFS is now such a dangerous heap of junk that it must be bulldozed to keep us safe, then it certainly follows the SCG Trust has to go. There is no precedent anywhere in the developed world for a stadium of that modernity falling to pieces with that rapidity, so it can only be due to a lack of maintenance.
Who is responsible? Its managers, the SCG Trust. The first to walk the plank must be Alan Jones, who has been there for the life of the SFS only to have it die in his hands! And yes, Jones is a powerful man. They are all powerful men, who we have heard a lot from this last fortnight, including most of the bosses of the big sports, together with the bosses of Fox Sports and Nine Sports. (The last of whom employs me on Sundays.) But ultimately, the government that should get our vote is the one that takes the views of those powerful men as just that, and not diktats.
We will know either this government, or the next one, is serious when it holds the powerful to account when things go wrong – and puts its sporting resources towards those with bugger-all voice at all, those in grassroots sports. Lord mayor Clover Moore’s point stands: “What this city most needs is not more places to watch sport, but more places for the people to play sport.” The same goes for the whole state.
If the Berejiklian government resets its whole sporting policy in this field, then we can believe it is serious.
Don't fall for Suncorp bluff
But the NRL has a gun to our head, you say? Blow $2.5 billion on stadiums, or we’ll take the grand final to Brissie.
“Oh yes, we’re serious all right. Try us. We really will take the GF away from the richest city in the country, boasting the largest base of rugby league fans and nine rugby league clubs, and commit to a market a fifth the size, with only two league clubs in the state, with a much more limited chance of having a home team in the contest. We’ll do it, just see if we don’t. We’re really going to do it, and see if Storm fans will travel twice the distance. Just watch us! We’re gunna...”
https://www.smh.com.au/sport/the-fitz-f ... 4z2iq.html
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