Opinion
The NRL is on the verge of announcing a $5 billion-plus television rights deal over seven years.
Massive money – about $750m a year. Overall annual turnover for the game will easily exceed a billion dollars.
The game is big business, demanding the highest of standards.
By and large that happens, a notable exception being Ocean Protect Stadium, AKA Shark Park, AKA Portaloo Park, which epitomises the lowest of standards. Somehow this multibillion-dollar game stands by and allows NRL matches to be played there.
On Thursday night the ground has the honour of hosting the NRLW season opener between the Sharks and Knights.
It should be a source of great embarrassment and shame to the game that the Sharks women’s team don’t have their own dressing shed. They use the decaying men’s team shed, putting on their playing gear near the urinals. There are only three regular toilets and the showers have no doors. It’s unacceptable, yet somehow allowed.
Last year in this publication we documented the poor state of the ground. The photos shocked many in the game and led to ridicule for the Sharks.
A year on, we’re unhappy to report nothing much has changed, as can be seen in photos we took at a recent home match.
In fact, they’ve gotten worse.
On the eastern side there are holes in the roof of the grandstand you could drive a truck through. Fans aren’t allowed on the upper level of that stand – it’s been condemned – but thousands sit on the lower level and directly in front of it. Heaven forbid there’s a gust of wind.
The portaloos, of course, still take pride of place as there aren’t nearly enough toilets for crowds of 13,500. Bins are randomly placed, ladders seem to be left wherever the last worker finished a job, along with gas bottles.
Thin plastic strips are used to block unsafe stairwells and electrical cords run everywhere.
These aren’t behind-the-scenes photos. They were all taken in public areas.
The problem for the club is, no-one wants to help. Because the ground is owned by the club’s members, and not the local council or state government, they wash their hands of it.
Sutherland Shire Council runs a million miles when asked. When this masthead sent our pics of Shark Park in action to the council with a string of questions, this is what we received: “The stadium is owned and operated by the club, and responsibility for day-to-day patron safety, event management, crowd control and emergency management sits with the venue operator and event organiser.
“Council is not the owner or operator of the venue and does not certify its operational safety. Council’s role is limited to matters with is its statutory responsibilities.
“Safety issues are primarily the responsibility of the venue operator, event organiser and SafeWork NSW.”
Which is an odd response. Try doing an extension on your house in the Sutherland Shire and see how far you get without council approval. They’d be all over you like calamine lotion.
On council’s suggestion, we went to SafeWork NSW, who told us to ask the council.
We’re getting giddy from being given the runaround.
After pouring money into Allianz Stadium and CommBank Stadium, the state government has turned its attention to new projects. One is Penrith Park, while modest money has been pledged to improve Leichhardt Oval and Campbelltown Stadium with local councils and the federal government.
State government sources, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of sensitive commercial issues, told this masthead there was no appetite to contribute to Shark Park.
Labor Premier Chris Minns is on record many times as saying he does not want to fund sporting stadiums ahead of services such as health and education.
In no particular order, the government’s very limited budget has priorities far higher than Cronulla, such as completion of improvements at Newcastle’s McDonald Jones Stadium, WIN Stadium in Wollongong and Accor Stadium ahead of hosting the Rugby World Cup final next year.
Also on the list are updating the Brewongle, Trumper, O’Reilly and Churchill stands at the SCG, which is an enormous project and one Venues NSW has made a priority.
Those stadiums have a common denominator – they are under the control of Venues NSW.
Leichhardt and Campbelltown received funding because they’re council-owned, and it was in the respective council’s interest to lean on state and federal governments.
So the Sharks are friendless, waiting for their clubhouse to be finished later this year so a proper cash flow can return.
It was closed in 2019 and has taken seven years. Sydney built its Olympic venues in five years.
We don’t hold our breath for a female dressing shed or a new toilet block at Portaloo Park any time soon.
Neil Breen is the national sports editor and a Walkley Award-winning journalist.Connect via X.
