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Business of sport

This Month

Basketball’s global body asked to intervene in billionaires’ war

A fight over the future of Australia’s basketball league is escalating after a club owner asked FIBA to investigate the NBL’s billionaire owner Larry Kestelman.

Illawarra Hawks owner Jared Novelly.

NBL recruits KordaMentha as basketball war gets messier

Two billionaires, Larry Kestelman and Jared Novelly, are fighting over the future of the National Basketball League and it looks headed for court.

March

An artist’s impression of the Macquarie Point Stadium in Hobart.

Stadium cost blowout latest threat to newest AFL team

The forecast costs were released in an independent report by the Tasmanian Planning Commission, which will decide whether the project should go ahead.

Illawarra Hawks owner Jared Novelly and NBL owner Larry Kestelman.

How the billionaire fight of the NBL unravelled

A longstanding dispute between two basketball-loving billionaires burst into the public last week. It’s about to get ugly.

John Aloisi’s soccer team plays on despite ATO audit

The Tax Office has been revealed as the applicant trying to wind up the parent companies of Australia’s highest ranked A-League club Western United.

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Top-ranked A-League club Western United hits financial turbulence

Two companies that underpin the Melbourne soccer team face winding up motions from creditors, one of which has not been paid the $5000 it is owed for months.

New infrastructure planned for the Brisbane 2032 Olympic summer Games includes a main stadium, aquatic centre and a main athletes village on the site of the RNA showgrounds.

Builders line up for $7.1b Brisbane Olympic spree

The runway to develop infrastructure for the world’s biggest sporting tournament has shrunk to just seven years, so work has to begin soon.

Rob Priestley before the season kicked off.

Carlton fans shift ire from Luke Sayers to Rob Priestley

It’s been a bad start to the year for the Blues, who, true to form, are looking for someone to blame.

The fight over the NBL plays out between their clubs.

Billionaires take the court to decide future of the NBL

Jared Novelly’s team came out on top in the latest round of his fight against basketball league owner Larry Kestelman.

NBL owner Larry Kestelman has been urged to step down by one of the club’s millionaire owners.

Billionaire wars: Larry Kestelman knocks back NBL takeover

Jared Novelly, the owner of the Illawarra Hawks and ally of Donald Trump, has attempted to oust Kestelman from the NBL.

Novak Djokovic and Nick Kyrgios talk tactics during their match in Brisbane in 2024.

Bill Ackman joins top tennis players’ pay fight

Novak Djokovic, Nick Kyrgios and other tennis stars are suing the sport’s governing bodies, accusing them of running a cartel.

Is Bailey Smith the David Beckham of the AFL?

The young Geelong star has the looks and swagger to become a brand unto himself, just like footballer turned fashion icon David Beckham, marketing experts say.

Oscar Piastri is taking his new found fame and fortune in his stride.

Oscar Piastri on the secret of his $41m-a year success

The Australian Formula 1 driver says his race day routine involves the same lunch, no matter where he is.

AFR AFR Architect Michael Lavery says Brisbane 2032 stadium planning needs to avoid the mistakes of the 2003 Suncorp Stadium/Lang Park upgrade that failed to accommodate public and active transport (eg cycling/walking) connections to the venue. Photo: Peter Wallis

10 March 2025

How Brisbane Olympics can avoid Suncorp Stadium’s mistakes

The Olympic host city is about to announce new venues. They’ll saddle the city with long-term costs long after 2032 if not done right.

Brisbane Lions chairman Andrew Wellington.

What to do when a cyclone blows away your flagship game

Brisbane Lions president Andrew Wellington says running an AFL premiership-winning team is all about long-term strategy, teamwork and putting safety above everything else.

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February

Danny Townsend is the Australian sports administrator who has found himself at the top of Saudi Arabia’s international ambitions for the sector.

The Australian at the heart of Saudi’s billion-dollar push to dominate global sport

Danny Townsend ran Sydney FC and then the A-League. Now he’s in the box seat to observe Saudi Arabia’s ambitions to dominate world sport. Will his gamble pay off?

Plus fours? LIV Golf has a party feel in Adelaide.

LIV Golf is here to make purists shudder. They like it that way

LIV Golf has brought a party atmosphere to the manicured lawns of Adelaide’s Grange golf links and the tournament’s new global CEO says the sport’s great disruptor is just getting started.

January

Room to move - and watch: The Australian Open has a large pool of flexible space to use for events and uses separate to the actual tennis matches.

What the Australian Open can teach Brisbane 2032

Like grand slam tennis, the biggest challenge the Olympics faces is to attract people who may not even care for the sports themselves. But that needs space.

Australian Open.

Banker showdown at the Australian Open men’s final

At the tennis, Jannik Sinner triumphed over Alexander Zverev as three duelling investment banks put on their own show.

Kellie Blauhorn and Andy Penn catch up with Penny and Grant Fowler in the Emirates seats.

Who’s really in and who’s out at the AO women’s final

Australia’s movers and shakers once more opened their social year in style, enjoying one of the true spectacles of global sport at the Australian Open.

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