It was only in 1974 that Sydney’s world-famous cricket ground first let women into the members pavilion — today, a woman is running the SCG.
Sydney’s fabled cricket ground has appointed its first female boss after a worldwide search landed one of Australia’s top executives to take carriage of the Moore Park precinct.
Kerrie Mather, former Sydney Airport boss and the clear standout in a field of 50 local and international applicants, takes on the SCG at a crucial time in history.
The new demand is women’s sport. Whether it’s Big Bash, women’s league — each of the codes that have a home in that precinct have a women’s team or are nurturing a women’s team
There’s an arms race for tourism, with the battle to make Sydney a premier world events city firmly on the agenda. Then there’s the fresh era ahead with the building of the mammoth new Sydney Football Stadium on the precinct after years of debate.
Mather has a vision that brings the past and future together. “I’m very much looking forward to, on the one hand, preserving the history and culture embedded in the grounds, but also taking that to a state-of-the-art future,” she says.
“Sydney continues to be one of the top global cities in terms of attractiveness. We have so many natural advantages with our harbour and natural parklands.
“There is an opportunity for team Sydney to come together and think about how we focus on winning that arms race for tourism.”
At the heart of this, she says, is an intention to “create a positive step-change in our fan experience”, that matches up with the new state-of-the- art Sydney Football Stadium.
SCG Trust chairman Tony Shepherd is thrilled to land someone of Mather’s calibre for the prestigious sports executive position.
Mather was managing director and CEO of Sydney Airport for more than 15 years.
In that multimillion-dollar job, she steered the airport through a period of prosperity and gained the respect of the Australian business and infrastructure community.
She has also long been a role model for aspiring female executives, as one of the few female CEOs of Australia’s biggest listed companies.
Mather sees female sport as a key growth area for the Moore Park precinct.
“You want to preserve all those traditions — respect and treasure what has gone before you but at the same time you want to take that, develop it and grow it and, of course, make new demand,” she says.
“The new demand is women’s sport. Whether it’s Big Bash, women’s league — each of the codes that have a home in that precinct have a women’s team or are nurturing a women’s team.
“We have a role to play in supporting those new markets.”
Sports Minister Stuart Ayres believes the new $729 million Sydney Football Stadium, due for completion in 2022, will be the most female-friendly stadium in Australia.
Mather also sees scope to build connections with the SCG precinct and the people of Sydney by opening up the grounds to the community.
This was an approach she took in her role at Sydney Airport, which firmed her belief in the importance of community connections.
As the precinct prepares to build a new stadium after years of community backlash and government infighting, her approach is seen as a way to bring the community on the journey of embracing the new stadium. “I can see great opportunities for how we strengthen our community engagement. This is an asset owned by the community for the community,” she says.
“It really is the people’s grounds. And so I am asking myself — what can we be doing with our facilities to be doing something that’s of benefit for the community.”
At Sydney Airport, Mather ran a yearly Christmas appeal, harnessing the 150,000 people who came through the airport every day to benefit others.
As part of this, she would open the runway for an annual “runway run”.
“I absolutely want to be strengthening community engagement,” she says.
Shepherd says he sees Mather as a “game-changer”, adding that she is world class when it comes to delivering outstanding customer experience and stakeholder management.
“We’ve got to move the business right into the 21st century with the new stadium. We intend to provide the highest class of customer experience,” Shepherd says.
“Modern stadiums are open and we intend to lift the rate of local community engagement as well. We’ve been doing that but we want to take that to the next level.”
He says the new stadium will be an “outstanding neighbour” in the local Moore Park precinct.