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As far as soft landings go, the one Peter V’landys has just orchestrated for himself is about as good as they come.
The 66-year-old sporting administrator – easily one of the most powerful figures in Australian sport, media and politics – has resigned as chief executive of Racing NSW following 22 years at the helm. V’landys is due to be unveiled as the NRL’s new executive chairman – an unprecedented role for the game and the man himself.
Seismic? Yes. Surprising? It shouldn’t be. This has been in the works for a good six months. The catalyst for the switcheroo was the mid-season departure of Andrew Abdo as NRL chief executive. The big-vision loving V’landys and the details-focused Abdo and were a good yin and yang, but the latter jumped at the chance to become Tennis Australia boss and have a breather from his unpredictable and demanding chairman.
A worldwide search would have ordinarily found a new chief executive to lead the booming NRL into the 2030s. But wouldn’t you know it, the search ended up settling on V’landys, who will combine the role with his existing duties as Australian Rugby League Commission chairman. There is talk he may be paid up to $3 million a year – roughly double what Abdo was banking.
V’landys has told friends he feels a genuine emotional pull about leaving Racing NSW. Fair enough. While things have become tricky of late – V’landys and the organisation found themselves in far too many legal and political scraps – his impact on the industry is undeniable.
“He will go down as one of the best, if not the best, sporting administrators in Australian history,” says champion trainer Chris Waller.
“When he came in he promised to double the prize money and introduce this and that, and everyone thought ‘what a load of nonsense’. And I was very sceptical. But everything he said, he did. Sure, he may have made a few mistakes over the time, but overall his impact has been quite amazing.”
The best indicator of V’landys’ success in pulling NSW racing out of its doldrums is the ferocious way in which Victorian racing authorities responded to new events in Sydney like The Everest, now the world’s richest turf race and attracting a new generation of racegoers. The stuffy Melbourne establishment still hates it – something V’landys has taken great delight in.
His willingness to go to court to secure a 1.5 per cent tax on online wagering operators that take bets on races in NSW has delivered annual fees of at least $150 million. The windfall allowed V’landys to act as a generous benefactor, throwing cash around like confetti and winning friends and allies in the process. Racing NSW says V’landys’ initiatives as chief executive since 2004 have delivered $3.5 billion in new funding, with total new recurring annual revenues nudging the $375 million mark. Saturday metropolitan prize money is up from $45,000 in 2004 to $160,000 now, and country TAB prizes up from $5000 to $27,000. V’landys’ right-hand man, chief operating officer Graeme Hinton, is in the box seat to take over.
V’landys also secured a big federal government rescue package during the equine influenza outbreak of 2007.
But it has not all been sunshine and rainbows. V’landys arguably stayed too long. He was sometimes too eager for a fight. There has been much speculation about what a review into the laws governing racing in NSW, led by former health minister Brad Hazzard, might say. The report is sitting on the government’s desk. What’s in it depends on who you ask. Some believe Hazzard has stuck to his brief and merely scrutinised the Thoroughbred Racing Act. Others reckon it could make some pointy observations about corporate culture at Racing NSW.
V’landys is known to be a bit of a tyrant in the office and a notorious cheapskate. Staff at the racing regulator required permission to print a colour photocopy, and catching cabs was banned if a meeting venue was within the CBD.
That approach has made its way to the NRL’s Sydney headquarters, with biscuits in the kitchen cut back and indoor pot plants banished and replaced with footballs. “You don’t have to water the footballs,” he explained. Staff who had great affection for Abdo are much more cautious about how V’landys does business. As chair of the game, his big thinking was chaotic but at least good fun. As a nuts and bolts manager, some say he is just chaotic.
V’landys’ critics believe the embarrassing collapse of talks with singer Tones and I over a performance for the league’s October 4 grand final could be a sign of things to come. The debacle means there will be no major act at the game. The singer’s management says an offer was only presented on September 5 – one month before the big day.
Once V’landys gets his racing farewell out of the road on Thursday morning, he and the ARLC commission will need to start answering questions about how this NRL leadership experiment is going to work.
V’landys once thought the idea was a shocker. Amid speculation in 2020 that V’landys might have a stab at combining the chief executive and chairman roles, he said: “There needs to be a segregation between the board and management. I’ve always believed in proper corporate governance, so it would be hypocritical to do anything other than that.”
Putting so much power in the hands of one man provides real potential for things to go wrong. What are the safeguards? Appointing a couple of commissioners to mediate in disputes with internal or external stakeholders isn’t enough – particularly when most of the members of the commission are diehard V’landys loyalists.
He is likely to be appointed on a contract of three years, which would take him close to 70 years of age. V’landys may have faults, but a lack of energy and focus on work isn’t one of them. Once he’s landed in the big chair at Driver Avenue, he might be able to stay as long as he likes.
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Bevan Shields is a senior writer, and former editor of The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via email.From our partners
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