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VenuesWest boss David Etherton exits on a high after 18 years of extraordinary growth and change

David Etherton isn’t blown away easily. As the outgoing CEO of VenuesWest, the State Government-appointed manager and overseer of 14 major sports and entertainment precincts worth an estimated $3 billion, he’s seen it all. From the fight to survive through the COVID pandemic, to bidding for and staging an AFL grand final and Brownlow Medal, to Sam Kerr-driven Matildas’ madness, to the world Rugby Sevens. The metrics are mighty: Almost six million customers spend roughly $300,000 million at more than 100 world-class events each year. As Mr Etherton says: “It’s a big gig.” Nothing, however, prepared him for the mania surrounding a Queenslander teenager with South Sudanese heritage by the name of Gout Gout. The “Gout Gout” effect, as it was dubbed, packed the WA Athletics Stadium for the national championships in January — and the kid lived up to the hype with two sub 10-second runs over 100 metres and a 19.84 in the Under 20 200m final on the Sunday in front of 6500 fans. “I’ve had a couple of surprises in my career of events that I’ve gone to that have just knocked my socks off,” Mr Etherton told Agenda. “I reckon the rugby sevens was one of those. I had no idea how cool that was before I went to that. “But Gout Gout? My 11-year-old son is an avid Gout Gout fan and he finished that 19.84 about 15 metres away from where the two of us were standing. It was so good. What a surprising event. The media build up was awesome. Perth really got behind it. “That venue has never been as activated as that and as pumping as it was when he when he ran there. “Another big result was the Matildas when they came here and sold out three matches, 100,000 people, one at Optus, two at HBF Park. I mean, geez, what a story.” Mr Etherton will leave the job after 18 years in charge when his contract expires next May — his predecessor Graham Moss was also at the helm for 18 years when it was known as the West Australian Sports Centre Trust. He told the VenuesWest chair Mary Anne Stephens of his plans 18 months ago. “I think it’s good governance for senior executives to move on and make sure there’s a new set of eyes looking at organisations,” Mr Etherton said. “So 18 months ago we put in place a policy at VenueWest where we said, ‘If you’ve been here for 10 years, and you’re a senior exec, one of the top 10 people in our business, you can’t get a contract extension without competing against the market. “It’s important to get new blood in there and new ideas. So if you want to continue on, then you need to compete against the market. As a result of that, we’ve had some change within our senior executive team, which is very healthy change. “When we looked around the table, there was a lot of people who had been there a long time, it was just time to time to shake that up. “And at the time, I told everyone, ‘I want to be clear, I won’t be competing against the market. I’ll be moving on and we’ll get someone new in here’. “There’s a new growth phase, if you think about all the venues that are being built in by the WA Government at the moment. You’d expect most of those will end up being with VenuesWest. Malaga (rugby league, union, AFL), potentially the Perth Entertainment and Sporting Precinct (Burswood Park). “So I think it’s really good time for someone new to come in as VenuesWest is about to go through another phase of growth. The timing couldn’t be better.” Gout Gout might have been the event that caught him by surprise, but COVID was the biggest challenge, in terms of the management company’s ability to perceive, pivot and prevail. Hosting events at empty venues, figuring out what to do with food that would never be consumed and convincing the AFL, unsuccessfully at first, that Perth was the best venue for the grand final represented defining moments. Despite the lockdown on interstate visitors, 61,118 turned up at the 2021 grand final between two non-WA clubs, Melbourne and the Western Bulldogs, with the Demons ending a premiership drought that dated back to 1964. “We bid for 2020 as well (when the grand final was played at the Gabba), so there was a team of people who tried to convince the AFL it was a good idea to not go to Brisbane that year,” Mr Etherton said. “And that was disappointing when they decided to go to Brisbane. But pitching to win the 2021 grand final and have that here was definitely my proudest moment at VenuesWest and we did that in conjunction with WA Police because of COVID, Tourism WA, Venues Live (which co-leases management rights to Optus Stadium). “That was an awesome bid, a great proposal and we didn’t pay for it, which was even better.” The Queensland Government paid more than $20 million to stage the 2020 grand final. The WA Government contributed to the cost of the match-day entertainment on the basis that local artists were given preference and shared the policing bill with the AFL. Life during COVID was tough for an organisation that relied on numbers through turnstiles, but to quote a well-worn line from former US president John F. Kennedy: “Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.” “We went from having nearly six million customers a year to having zero for months,” he said. “It was tough. We we did a couple of things early. We pivoted our staff. We set up a call centre and we’re calling people in the COVID hotels on behalf of government to make sure they had contact with the people. “We grabbed all the food from all of our venues that we had sitting in the freezers, or some weren’t sitting in the freezers but were still good, and prepared meals for the needy. “We delivered 1000s and 1000s of meals, particularly right at the start of COVID, meals that would have gone to waste because we couldn’t sell them. “So we got all the chefs from VenuesWest, from HBF Park and from Optus stadium, all together at Optus stadium, all cooking, all with the appropriate separation and all prepared all of those meals. “And then (agricultural food company) Harvest Road helped us deliver those everywhere and as far away as Broome. “We had a lot of things to pivot from there and then over time, as our border controls and the lower spread that we had in Western Australia, we could get back on track earlier than others. “I mean, having 61,000 people at the AFL Grand Final, when people in Melbourne were still locked down was an amazing feat, and we worked really closely with the police. “Gary Dreibergs, the Deputy Police Commissioner at the time who is now on our board at VenuesWest, we worked really closely with him to make that happen and to get all of the protocols in place. It was complex. It was a lot of fun, but geez it was a lot of hard work. “We had the Brownlow Medal too. First one I’ve been to. It was a bonus. When we were bidding for it, we assumed we might be a chance, but to actually have it was very cool. “Everyone hears about the big events like State of Origins, the Bledisloe Cup, Coldplay, all the really exciting ones. “But we work on a plethora of smaller events like rowing and cycling that drive a lot of tourism visitation. Some of those events have visitation that’s not dissimilar to a major event, even though they’re low profile.” Mr Etherton sees no reason why WA can’t ultimately bid for an AFL Gather Round and while he does not dismiss the State having a third AFL team, behind Fremantle and West Coast, believes others area ahead in the pecking order. He said a Gather Round would need to incorporate Optus Stadium and other metropolitan venues, with the South West. “We would need to do it with Margaret River or Busselton or Bunbury. The great thing is the direct flights into Busso now really helps with that. I think we’d be really competitive,” he said. “We got good grounds around Perth that you can have, obviously Optus Stadium for the blockbusters, another couple of good grounds around Perth. We could host those events that aren’t going to quite grab the same crowd and only have two or three matches down there as well. And get the get the tourists down to Margaret River, get the tourists down to Busso and Bunbury.” He is an advocate for the resurrection of AFL State of Origin, with talk of a game between WA and Victoria next February at Optus Stadium. “It could be big. I think the challenge for everyone, if it is to occur, is to make it fire, to make it as important as the NRL State of Origin is, so that’s an interesting challenge,” he said. “Third AFL team? I think there are other other options. First, obviously Tasmania and Northern Territory, I think, are well and truly in front before us.” Mr Etherton, who was awarded a Venue Managers’ Association lifetime achievement award in June, started at Venues West when he was 37, after prior jobs at Tourism WA and Eventscorp. At 54 he wants to pursue non-executive roles, focus on the many boards he sit ons, and spend ore time his family, wife Sonja and kids Tyler, Dior, Cooper, Dimity and Jayde. “I’m not going to pursue another executive role. What I want to do is make a contribution. I’m already on a couple of boards and already volunteer in our community. I’m the deputy chair of Lifeline Western Australia. Lifeline WA is an amazing business, helped out 171,000 people last year at the worst time in their life. “I’m also on the national Anzac Centre Advisory Committee as well down in Albany. That’s a lot of fun that one, and I’ve been on a variety of boards over over my time.” VenuesWest operates a number of management models. Seven of their venues are self-managed, run by a chief operating officer; two have a private sector manager with Optus Stadium run by VenuesLive and RAC Arena by ASM Global; three venues exist under a co-management, where almost all of the activity that occurs in that venue is one sport, such as Bendat Basketball Centre, the Gold Netball Centre and the soon to be built Australian hockey centre will be the same. But Mr Etherton believes there is room and demand for more stadia to bill in the gaps between Optus Stadium, HBF Park (20,500) and RAC Arena (15,000). “There’s a gap in the market in arenas. Having something that’s more centrally located than Perth High Performance Centre (Mt Claremont) at around that 5000 mark is important,” he said. “I think we’ve also got a little gap in the market in the rectangular stadiums. So you know the Sam Kerr Football Centre do 2000-2500, and then we’ve got HBF Park at 20,300. “Over time, I’m hopeful that there’ll be an upgrade to HBF Park and that it is closer to the 25,000 that we’ve got it approved in the long-term master plan. “But there’s a gap, a big gap, between those two. And so something where you can do pre-season matches, something where you can do Glory women’s matches when they get more popular, somewhere around the 5000 mark, I think, would be really valuable in that space.”

The West Australian exclusiveVenuesWest boss David Etherton exits on a high after 18 years of extraordinary growth and change

exclusive
VenuesWest boss David Etherton exits on a high after 18 years of extraordinary growth and change