A vote for stadiums isn't a vote for Alan Jones
Andrew WebsterMarch 21, 2019 — 4.38pm
Two days before
Jeff Horn fought
Manny Pacquiao in June 2017, broadcaster
Alan Jones hosted a luncheon at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre.
As always, Jones wowed patrons with his impressive sporting knowledge as he interviewed the likes of
Roberto Duran,
Jeff Fenech and
Timothy Bradley.
In between on-stage commitments, he approached a table of reporters – this one included – and rattled off an unforgettable remark about the great stadium debate that was starting to rage back home in Sydney.
“There’s going to be another Hillsborough!” he declared.
Jones was referring to the Hillsborough disaster in 1989 when 96 people were crushed to death while attending the FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest.
This, Jones felt, justified the knockdown and rebuild of Allianz Stadium, which is operated by the SCG Trust, of which Jones is a long-time trustee.
As someone who has been pro-stadium ever since the NSW state government first proposed the idea of upgrading Sydney’s woefully outdated stadiums as far back as 2012, I cringed.
“God, I hope he doesn’t say that on-air,” I recall telling a colleague sitting next to me.
As anyone who has read tens of thousands of words about the Hillsborough tragedy, or seen scores of documentaries (including ESPN’s stomach-churning
30 for 30 series in 2014), would know, there’s no comparison between what happened at Hillsborough that day and the decaying relic that Allianz has become.
As countless inquiries and inquests over the years have shown, blame for the Hillsborough disaster was placed at the feet of people – not the stadium.
In fact, at the foot of one person: retired chief superintendent David Duckenfield, the match commander that day, who is currently before a court in the UK facing 95 charges of manslaughter by gross negligence. He has pleaded not guilty.
Jones did mention it on air, as have others. His decision to even whisper Hillsborough in the same breath as Sydney’s need for new stadiums was a mistake and, to be fair, offensive.
But it also sums up how almost every participant in the stadium debate, from both sides of government to the Trust itself, has ballsed up the discussion.
Amid the rambling mistruths, distorted facts, claims and counter-claims, reports, polls, petitions and just simply appalling PR over the last four years, it has been a cock-up.
But there is one inescapable fact for those sports fans who regularly attend these venues: they are outdated, they are punishing to get into, move around in, buy food and drink in, go to the toilets in, and then leave.
Cue the outrage ...
But nobody goes to Allianz!
Try telling that to the 600,000 people who went there over nine months last year before the venue was shut down in September so demolition work could start. That included three sell-outs over 40,000, which included record crowds at the Wallabies-Ireland Test match and the Roosters-Souths preliminary final. There were 13 events held at Allianz last year with crowds of 20,000 or more.
That just proves it doesn’t need to be knocked down!
Try telling that to those who were there, crushed like sardines on the concourses getting to their seats or stuck in endless lines for beers and food and the bathrooms.
At a political level, the manoeuvring behind the scenes belongs in an episode of
Veep.
In September 2015, then Premier
Mike Baird announced a new rectangular stadium at Moore Park with 50,000-55,000 seats.
By April the following year, he backflipped, announcing that ANZ Stadium would be rebuilt but Allianz would only be refurbished after the 2019 election. Then Baird left to take up a job in the banking sector.
In November 2017, new premier
Gladys Berejiklian announced a change in the batting order: Allianz would be knocked down and replaced with a $729 million stadium. ANZ Stadium would be refurbished after that.
Somebody —
anybody — pick a freaking stadium policy and stick to it!
The Opposition Leader at the time,
Luke Foley, insisted that ANZ should be fixed first. After previously claiming neither of the stadiums needed refurbishment. After previously claiming ANZ should be the priority.
When I often bumped into Foley at sporting events, I would jokingly ask which stadium policy he was following today. He would chuckle and admit it was all about votes in the west.
Really? I’m stunned.
In November last year, Foley resigned amid claims he drunkenly harassed a female ABC journalist at a Christmas party in 2016. (He has said the allegations against him are false and has indicated he will sue for defamation).
So in came
Michael Daley to save the day, pitting himself against Jones and others who occupy “the big end of town”, declaring Labor won’t put stadiums before schools and hospitals and, presumably, that godforsaken thing they call Vivid.
It paints a nice, evocative picture of pensioners gasping for air in waiting rooms and school kiddies sweltering in demountables but doesn’t really make sense when you consider the $1.9 billion allocated for two stadiums is part of Berijiklian’s spend of $87.2 billion on infrastructure over the next four years. Ashtray change, really, in comparison.
Daley says he will build “something” at Moore Park if he's elected, although he doesn’t know if it’s a refurbishment or just a smaller, 30,000-seat stadium similar to the new Parramatta Stadium that’s about to be opened.
He says the NSW taxpayer won’t fund it — the SCG Trust will have to take out a loan. But didn’t he say he was going to dissolve the Trust?
Meanwhile, as the days tick down to the March 23 election, heavy machinery is gouging big chunks out of the side of Allianz like a Komodo Dragon that's stumbled upon a sleeping backpacker.
Which of Berijiklian’s advisers thought that would be smart optics?
But if we’re going to
really get to the heart of this issue, time to get serious. This isn’t about new stadiums. It’s not about fire sprinklers. It’s not about the NRL threatening to take the grand final interstate.
It’s about Alan Jones. It’s about the belief that he runs this city instead of elected officials. If he’s not on the SCG Trust, are we talking about any of this?
Fair play to Daley for taking him on. Politically, it is a death-or-glory move. We are about to see how much sway the veteran broadcaster still has in this state.
But a vote for stadiums isn’t necessarily a vote for Jones or the big end of town. It's for long-suffering sports fans who deserve adequate stadiums like every other major city.
