Billionaire bowled over by the gridiron
Not all the Australian billionaires did the Australian Open finals weekend.
The Melbourne-born stock picker Alex Waislitz opted for the Super Bowl, where he caught up with mate Scott Eastwood.
The Hollywood actor, who has the same maverick style as his famous father Clint, once advised he appreciated the ‘‘healthy disrespect’’ people have Down Under.
Waislitz, the Collingwood AFL vice-president, had to make a choice as to whether attend the Bowl or the Open.
Usually the two major sporting events are a week apart, but Tennis Australia seemingly pushed the AO back a week to allow for the ATP Cup.
Even a private jet would have struggled to make it from the Rod Laver Arena to the Hard Rock Stadium in Palm Beach, Florida, given the Djokovic-Thiem five-setter concluded at nearly midnight after a four-hour epic.
Despite being Melbourne’s prominent sporting leader, Collingwood president Eddie McGuire was at the Super Bowl, representing Triple M radio with his son Joe.
Pies coach Nathan Buckley was back at the Open. And Joffa was packing his bags to live in Fiji.
McGuire said as much as he was there again for the football, he also believed it was good to understand first-hand how the US runs sporting events.
“It’s a real eye-opener”, McGuire said, starting with the big screens outside the stadium.
He also noted Instagram influencers were hired for the parties’ live streaming, with hits being tracked and paid accordingly.
“The innovations are the stuff we need to integrate down at Marvel Stadium and the MCG over the next couple of years,” McGuire said.
“It’s a big country over here, they spend big, they go hard, but they get the rewards — there’s no doubt about it.”
The private jets were all lined up at the airport.
No doubt one belonged to Jeff Bezos, the $160bn man who is CEO and founder of Amazon, who was in town for the Big Dance.
Despite being based in Florida, Greg The Shark Norman wasn’t in attendance — instead in Saudi Arabia at the Royal Greens Golf Club
The Bowl ad prices are sky-high given the international attention.
No word on the Channel Nine ad revenue, but the ratings for the Djokovic versus Thiem epic grabbed 3.3 million metro viewers, double last year when Novak faced Rafa.
Bikie returns serve
The binoculars were out at the tennis, but with squinted eyes scanning all the billionaires, Margin Call entirely missed the tattoo-headed front rower.
Toby Mitchell is the former leader of motorcycle gang Bandidos.
Early morning 3AW breakfast co-host Ross Stevenson revealed Mitchell’s presence.
“I don’t quite know how you (get your hands on a front row ticket), but it must be reasonably difficult,” Ross mused.
Whispers are Mitchell is close to a current Australian player.
Mitchell had been on the Victorian coast during the day before the big game, posting to his 56,000 Instagram followers the sunny views.
It oughtn’t have been a huge surprise that the gold-toothed former bikie was at Rod Laver Arena, as he was at the event last year.
“Tennis is over for another year, can’t wait for The Australian Open 2020”, Mitchell posted on social media last year.
There is another Toby Mitchell who actually made it to the first round of the AO in the late 1990s on two occasions. The Gippsland-born player, who was coached by Graeme Brimblecombe, was last known to be coaching overseas.
Karl lifts his game
As the Australian Open broadcast concluded, it emerged that Channel Nine Today star host Karl Stefanovic has been seriously working on his tennis.
He quietly spent time over the summer break on Hayman Island, off Queensland, fine-tuning his own game.
He took part in a tennis camp on the luxury resort under the guidance of his longtime mate, former professional tennis player turned estate agent Iggy Diamani.
The $2750 course is for those staying on the recently re-opened InterContinental resort.
It was almost as if Karl knew he was going to have to pick up a racquet during Nine coverage of the Australian Open tournament. That came on day three when he had a game of mini-tennis against comedian David “Hughesy” Hughes, whom he edged out 2-1 in a best of three contest, with his serving catching the praise of the former world number one Jelena Dokic who, well, described his serve as “OK”.
The tennis camp didn’t do wonders for his fitness however.
Comedian Ed Kavalee joked Stefanovic was serving in the “over 250kg division”, before quickly adding “combined”, across him and Hughesy.
Stefanovic then pulled his hamstring crashing to earth, just like Today Show’s ratings.
Co-founded by Michael Tebbutt, the next Hayman camp is in March with Diamani, who played tennis professionally, later becoming a talent scout for the Italian Tennis Federation, taking him abroad for 10 years.
In 1999, he returned to Australia to pursue a career in banking and real estate.
His wife, Victoria Morish, best known for her decade selling property at the Di Jones agency, recently become the camp’s business development manager.
Speers on target
Television presenter David Speers, on the new Insiders set, attracted 369,000 viewers to the ABC on Sunday morning. The national broadcaster would have been happy, as it was up around 20 per cent on the same time last year.
Speers’ maiden appearance came with an interview with Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, who said the economy has been very resilient through very tough circumstances.
Frydenberg shut down a question on the possibility of seeing a negative quarter of growth.
Sunday saw Speers joined by Niki Savva, Philip Coorey and Renee Viellaris who looked to be wearing expensive Valentino Garavani Rockstud shoes.
Speers resigned from Sky News last May with hopes of stepping in to Barry Cassidy’s shoes soon after.
Cassidy signed-off last June, with 800,000 viewers tuning in as the program’s highest ever ratings.
Speers, wife Liz and their two daughters have moved from Canberra, paying an unusual price of $1,836,275 for a renovated 1950s home in Alpington in Melbourne’s inner northeast. The home was bought in August just as the ScoMo re-election effect was boosting Melbourne house prices.
The 45-year-old spent his childhood in Tamworth, teenage years in Sydney, and did work experience that led to his first job at Geelong radio station, K-Rock. He then became a radio traffic reporter but was never comfortable in the two-seater Cessna plane.
Speers is reportedly taking a pay cut. His job also extends to a spot on RN Breakfast on Fridays along with the occasional analysis on the 7pm news and also some written ABC online commentary.
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