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VenuesWest Chief Executive, David Etherton has described 2020 as being "a year like no other", explaining how Coronavirus caused the facility management agency to “change our practices, plans, language, operations and expectations” during the year.

Writing in the recently released 2019/20 VenueWest Annual Report, Etherton advised how its 13 Western Australian venues were, prior to the Coronavirus pandemic, "on target to meet our lofty performance expectations for the year (and) our Western Australian athletes were busy training for the Tokyo Olympics (with) record numbers of popular events ... booked."

With VenuesWest’s business performance was on track after the first three quarters of the last financial year, the final quarter, during which all of its venues were closed, altered the results significantly.

Commenting on the impact of COVID-19, Etherton wrote “for the first time in the organisation’s history, our venues closed en masse, and staff were required to manage thousands of cancellations of events and activities whilst adapting quickly to new ways of working.

Prior to the lockdown, the year saw Optus Stadium welcomed the football exhibition matches with Manchester United/Leeds United games played to a total of 105,000 fans in July 2019 (21,000 of whom had travelled to Perth from intrastate, inter-state and international locations).

In its second year of operations, the Stadium also hosted the Bledisloe Cup in August 2019, drawing a record crowd of over 60,000; held its first day-night cricket test match and a host of AFL fixtures.

It also welcomed major concert events featuring U2 and Queen + Adam Lambert each attracting 48,000 fans.

Etherton described the RAC Arena as “also observing another resoundingly successful year before March.

“In addition to the Perth Wildcats and West Coast Fever home games, the venue hosted the final of the women’s Federation Cup where then World Number 1 tennis player, Australian Ash Barty, drew a large and enthusiastic crowd.

“Later in the year the Hopman Cup was replaced by the new ATP men’s competition when the Arena was one of three host locations selected nationally.

“Raphael Nadal and Russia’s Daniil Medvedev were star attractions. Fleetwood Mac played two near capacity concerts, the Hilltop Hoods played to a capacity crowd and Hugh Jackman (four shows) and Michael Bublé (two shows) delighted large Perth crowds.

“The Arena also achieved Tourism WA Quality Tourism Accreditation, embarked on its first RAP, and hosted the first National RAP Conference.”

However, Ethertson expressed his regret that the contracted Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) event secured for June, which had been expected to live stream to a billion households in 172 countries and inject over $5 million into the local economy “was necessarily postponed”, adding “but it is hoped to be rescheduled in Perth soon”.

Looking forward, he advised “our focus now is to Recover, Reset and Rebuild.

“The closure period gave us the opportunity to expedite essential maintenance and capital expenditure, to review business practices across our venues, and to future proof operations and minimise the impact of pandemic related business disruption.”

Etherton noted that “we remain confident in recovery and are encouraged by the strong return of our regular customers in late May and June with gym memberships returning to 95% of pre-COVID levels and all our venues open for business with new COVIDSafe plans in place.”

He also advised “a focus this year has been on delivering an integrated, compliant safety and risk system to support all aspects of the business.

“The system puts in place procedures for public safety, business continuity and emergency management, workplace health and safety, and workplace wellness.

“In a best-ever performance our capex team committed more than their budgeted $8.8 million in capital works to maintain and improve our venues and their performance in terms of accessibility and sustainability.”

Highlights of the investment program included major aquatic pool roof repairs and Premier Suite upgrades at HBF Arena, the replacement of audio-visual displays and over $1.4 million of building maintenance at RAC Arena and the delivery of environmental management plans and building condition audits of all fixed assets at 11 venues.

VenuesWest owns and manages 13 sport and entertainment venues on behalf of the Western Australian Government with its portfolio currently consisting of RAC Arena, Optus Stadium, HBF Park, HBF Stadium, HBF Arena, SpeedDome, Champion Lakes Regatta Centre, WA Athletics, Gold Netball Centre, Bendat Basketball Centre, Perth Motorplex, WA Rugby Centre and the WAIS High Performance Service Centre.

The 2019/20 VenueWest Annual Report can be viewed at www.venueswest.wa.gov.au/media/30622/venueswest-annual-report-2019-20.pdf

Images: The Perth Wildcats in action at the RAC Arena (top) and Optus Stadium was named Australia's top stadium in the 2019 Stadium Awards announced in January (below).

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