Former Parramatta Eels CEO Denis Fitzgerald kicked out of private suite at Pirtek Stadium
May 14, 2016 10:00pm
Phil RothfieldThe Sunday Telegraph
JUST when you thought the Parramatta management crisis couldn’t get any more outrageous, former Eels CEO Denis Fitzgerald was kicked out of a private suite at Pirtek Stadium on Friday night.
The stadium’s operations manager ordered Fitzgerald to leave a suite in the Ken Thornett Stand where he was networking and mingling with sponsors. A security guard arrived to ensure he moved on.
Earlier Fitzgerald, who has been at loggerheads with the Eels board for years, arrived at the ground and sat in his seat as a guest in suite 11.
Later, he moved to another suite to meet other people. That’s when the trouble began and the operations manager arrived.
“He told me he’d been asked to request that I go back to my original suite and stay there,” Fitzgerald said.
“He was just doing what he was told to do by the stadium hirer. To save any drama I just left quietly.”
Fitzgerald said he was embarrassed by the incident and, as a life member, it was common practice to mix with guests in other suites.
“It was ridiculous and it was embarrassing,” he said.
“Who else gets told to go back to their seat and stay there? It felt like I was under house arrest. And was it discriminatory?
“Did they ask anyone else to leave? I often do a run of the boxes, *especially to see how two patrons, Alan Overton and Don Ritchie, are.”
A spokesman for the Eels confirmed Fitzgerald had been asked to leave the corporate box and added all guests were required to remain in the suites for which their tickets were issued.
