Vic Govt panicked into spending $363 million on Melbourne Park to keep tennis Grand Slam
Former Events NSW boss John O’Neill has revealed how Sydney sweet talked Tennis Australia bosses about bringing the Australian Open to Sydney before the Victorian Government opened its purse strings to keep the Grand Slam event in Melbourne.
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NSW’s former events boss has revealed how Victoria was forced into a massive Melbourne Park upgrade to prevent the Australian Tennis Open from falling into Sydney hands a decade ago.
As sports and business leaders call on the Minns Government to rebuild the SCG and put a roof over Accor Stadium, ex-Events NSW chair John O’Neill warned that fading stadium infrastructure can be the invitation for rivals to launch smash-and-grab raids.
O’Neill speaks from experience. He headed up Events NSW when secret talks with Tennis Australia (TA) took place in 2008 to steal the Australian Open from Victoria.
TA viewed tennis facilities in Melbourne at the time as tired, and the tournament’s Grand Slam status was at risk with major global cities including Shanghai and Madrid keen to join the US Open, Wimbledon and the French Open as one of the sport’s Big Four.
“We had discussions with TA under the cover of darkness,” O’Neill told The Daily Telegraph on Tuesday. “We always suspected we might be used as a stalking horse to get the Victorian Government to build out Melbourne Park.
“But when TA come knocking, you still listen. They needed a bigger, better tennis centre and we went a fair way down the road. We took them on a boat trip around the harbour and showed them a proposed site that had the Bridge as a backdrop.”
The site was Glebe Island, the same port facility the NSW Government is now considering shutting down to make way for high-rise apartments.
“It would have been the bees’ knees … best tennis facility in Australia,” O’Neill added.
“Strategically we wanted to fill gaps in our calendar with more same time, same place major events.
“Having put our best foot forward they went back to the Victorian Government who went into panic mode and agreed to a vastly improved Melbourne Park.
“That’s what happens. One way or another you have to keep refreshing your stadium assets or you run the risk of losing existing events, or not being in the race to attract new ones.”
The Victorian Government splashed $363 million on a redevelopment that included new courts and delivered the Australian Open three undercover venues.
Work started in 2010 and was completed in 2015. A year later Melbourne’s deal to host the Australian Open was extended.
Three years later, and awake to the dangers of stadium under-investment, the Victorian
Government launched Home Ground Advantage – Victoria’s Major Stadia Strategy.
The document reads in part: “Victoria’s major stadia and events network continues to experience pressure from a range of different sources at a faster pace than ever.
“This pressure means venues have shorter lifespans and require ongoing improvements to maintain the quality of their offering and an ability to attract events.”
While Victoria works to its 30-year stadia strategy, NSW community leaders told The Daily Telegraph last week they are concerned that without significant redevelopment at the SCG and Accor, the state will lose out in a nationwide stadium arms race.
The O’Reilly, Brewongle and Churchill stands at the SCG all opened between 1980 and 1986 and need rebuilding. Together with a roof at Accor the cost would be around $1 billion.
The NSW Government says it has asked Venues NSW for a condition assessment on the SCG
grandstands but in working through a business case for the Accor roof “we have made clear there are other pressures on the budget … that take priority”.
The stadium wars took on a new twist Tuesday with the Queensland Government announcing a new 60,000 seat stadium for the 2032 Brisbane Olympics.
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Originally published as Vic Govt panicked into spending $363 million on Melbourne Park to keep tennis Grand Slam
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