High Steaks: Outgoing AOC boss: ‘Power of the rings is still there’

As Australian Olympic Committee boss Matt Carroll prepares to step down on Saturday, he speaks to The Sunday Telegraph about the future challenges and opportunities for the Games.

He shares the name of the author who penned the literary classic Alice in Wonderland.

And when Lewis Carroll – universally known by his middle name Matt – steps down as Australian Olympic Committee chief executive on Saturday, he will finally extract himself from the sporting rabbit hole he tumbled down 34 years ago.

It has been a career filled with challenges and rewards across multiple high-profile organisations.

He helped create the first professional rugby union competitions when the game shed its amateur status in the mid-1990s, was the architect of the A-League when football entered a new era, and rebranded Sailing Australia when the sport required a makeover.

Outgoing AOC CEO Matt Carroll helped rebuild the AOC from the ground up. Picture: Rohan Kelly

Then in 2017 he was handed the role of resetting the AOC. Shortly after his appointment, an independent review found the AOC workplace culture had been dysfunctional following claims of bullying and ­favouritism.

With a background in construction before he was drawn to sport, Carroll set about rebuilding from the ground up, working alongside long-time AOC president John Coates.

“We put objectives in place around the community and Indigenous spaces, and repositioned the AOC as a more dynamic organisation,” Carroll said.

“One that was going to build the Olympic movement. It was about ensuring the Games are always on – not just sending a team to the Olympics every four years.”

As we dine on oysters, kingfish, prawn risotto and a rich agnolotti with beef, duck and pork at The Restaurant Pendolino in Sydney’s CBD, Carroll discusses the 2032 Brisbane Games, suggesting they will be a prototype for future Olympics.

Matt Carroll is a former general manager for the Rugby World Cup. Picture: AAP

The goal, he said, is for cities to thrive, not land themselves in a quagmire of debt from hosting an Olympic Games.

“It’s the International Olympic Committee’s new way of thinking, that the Games are to fit the city not the city to fit the Games,” Carroll explained.

“The rationale is that you don’t build things you won’t need for other purposes. So the big new stadium at Victoria Park in Brisbane, it will serve AFL and cricket for the next 50 years, not just be there for the four weeks of the Olympic and Paralympic Games.”

Before Brisbane steps into the spotlight, the Games go to Los Angeles, and Carroll foreshadows the prospect of Australia sending its largest ever Olympics team to the US in 2028.

“The AOC policy is that any athlete who reaches the qualifying standards will be selected,” he said.

“So our team in Paris of 467 was the third largest at those Games behind the USA and China.

“For LA, depending on how qualifying goes, we could easily end up with over 500 athletes which would be our largest team in history.”

Matt Carroll with South Australian Premier Mike Rann at Addelaide Oval in 2006. Carrol said our team for the Paris Games was the third largest.

Carroll also talks openly of the risks, threats and opportunities confronting Olympic sports and those charged with keeping the Games relevant and ever popular.

“For the Games themselves, the challenge we’ve seen is the need to spread the Games out, using existing venues not always in the host city, to keep costs down,” Carroll said.

“The last Summer Olympics weren’t just in Paris. There were other French cities involved, and Tahiti as well.

“We will see the same in LA. Jess Fox will be making her attempts to defend the gold medals she won last year (the K1 and C1 canoe events) in Oklahoma in 2028. That’s where the canoe facility is based.

“So you always need to ask the question ‘Are we in danger of losing the magic of the Games because of the spread of the Games?’

“Hence the need for every athlete who goes to the Olympics to have that true Games experience as much as they can. It’s challenging because of the multiple venues, multiple athlete villages.

“Few people realise a third of the Australian team wasn’t in the Paris village, they were in other parts of France.

Matt Carroll (right), with AOC president John Coates in 2017, said Australians love their Olympic and Paralympic teams. Picture: AFP

“But if you identify that as a factor, you can do what’s necessary to keep the magic alive.”

For individual Olympic sports, especially those with lesser profile, maintaining the rage in the race for eyeballs, sponsorship and most importantly talent is a modern-day dilemma.

“The bigger non-Olympic sports are getting bigger,” Carroll said.

“From a global perspective, the NFL, and the club competitions in football … these are multi-billion dollar businesses and they are challenging the sponsorship market for other events like the Games.

“Ensuring relevance is vital. Without that you risk your revenue streams and a talent drain with athletes attracted to other sports.

“But the Olympics are a good product and the power of the rings is still there, without a shadow of a doubt. You’ve only got to see the record ratings in Australia for the broadcasts and streaming of the last Summer Games.

“Australians love their Olympic and Paralympic teams.”

Matt Carroll, with his dog Marge on Balmoral Beach, will hand over the CEO role to Mark Arbib. Picture: Thomas Lisson

Carroll said the IOC is well attuned to the need for the Games to keep evolving, and have acted by including sports such as BMX freestyle, surfing, skateboarding and sports climbing.

“The outgoing IOC President Thomas Bach, it was one of his main aims, to refresh the Games,” Carroll added.

“He had the line ‘Change or be changed’. It’s worth remembering for any sport, any organisation.

“They did the research and the Games fan demographic was getting a bit too old. They needed to appeal to the youth again. What they’ve done is change those sporting dynamics and the kids are loving it.”

Carroll hands over the CEO role to former Federal Sports Minister and long-time sports administrator Mark Arbib following this weekend’s AOC AGM.

Only then will he take time to reflect on a career that was triggered by the “recession we had to have” in the early 1990s which drove him out of the construction game and into sport.

He ran the NSW Rugby Union, was a long time right hand man to John O’Neill at Rugby Australia and Football Federation Australia, then served as Sailing Australia chief before beating more than 320 candidates to take the gig at the AOC.

“I’ll take a break now and see what comes along,” he said. “But it won’t be another CEO role.”

He’s been down that rabbit hole already.

Originally published as High Steaks: Outgoing AOC boss: ‘Power of the rings is still there’