ANNUAL REPORT 2015-16 MELBOURNE CRICKET CLUB MCC Annual Report 2015/16 1 Our mission Melbourne Cricket Club is a private club with public responsibilities. It has two primary roles: Ŷ Managing the MCG as the world’s best stadium for all people. Ŷ Providing the best services and facilities to its members while ensuring our unique sporting culture and heritage are enhanced and appreciated. STRATEGIC VISION The club’s strategic direction is underpinned by the following dimensions: 1. Engage and manage MCC membership. 2. Destination MCG – giving people more reasons to visit, more often. 3. World-class facilities. In achieving these initiatives, we recognise that we must continue to deliver excellence in all of our core operations. Our values RESPECT The club prides itself on the respect and esteem it has earnt over its long and prestigious history. As staff, we respect our work colleagues, their abilities and views. We work as a team towards a common goal. By pursuing excellence and using our people to constantly deliver on our promises, we will earn the respect of our colleagues, stakeholders, customers and the wider community. PEOPLE People are the most important asset in our organisation. Our staff feel important through a variety of recognition programs and initiatives and are immensely proud of their involvement at such an iconic venue. Our staff enjoy their time at work and are recognised in a variety of ways for their performance. Integrity, honesty, loyalty and teamwork are the keys to providing a memorable customer service experience for our patrons and members. HERITAGE We will continue to develop the MCG into one of the world’s finest sporting stadiums and Australia’s greatest sporting icon, drawing on our history to reinforce its image as the People’s Ground. The club’s history, its rich and vast heritage collection and its culture will be observed, preserved and displayed for our members and visitors to savour. EXCELLENCE We are committed, collectively and as individuals, to strive for excellence at all times - using the best suited products and processes to deliver major events and consistently exceed expectations of service to our customers. We commit to improving the level of enjoyment for patrons, members and their guests while at the MCG. 2 MCC Annual Report 2015/16 President’s Report STEVEN SMITH, PRESIDENT The 2015/16 financial year was a significant one, with a number of major events, record crowds and developments that will have a lasting impact on our club and the MCG. resh from our role as host of the ICC Cricket World Cup Final in March 2015, Fand the sizeable task to convert the arena to AFL mode in just four days, the MCG attracted some additional major events in the winter months. Exterior lighting at the MCG enables sporting codes to theme the stadium in team colours. In June, the National Rugby League brought its popular State of Origin concept particularly the Paris attacks involving Stade uptake of this offer, and any impact on existing to Melbourne, part of an agreement with the de France in November last year, reinforced members’ amenities, when considering future Victorian Government that will see it return the need for us to continually examine our intakes. again in 2018. procedures. During the year we welcomed two new A huge crowd of 91,513 saw Game II of the We introduced several additional security committee members, Clare Cannon and Adrian three-game series, as New South Wales defied measures for the cricket season, including more Anderson, bringing our committee numbers to the odds to defeat Queensland 26-18 to even thorough bag checks, hand-held metal detection the maximum of 14. Clare and Adrian bring the series 1-1. The attendance bettered the of patrons before entry, and vehicle searches a range of skills to the committee table that previous Origin record of 88,836 in 1999 at before entering the underground car park at the complement our existing skill sets and I am Stadium Australia in Sydney, the year before it MCG. looking forward to the significant contributions was the centrepiece of the Sydney Olympics. We also trialled a temporary perimeter both will make to our club. Just a few weeks later, the International fence, enabling bag and patron scans to be A former chair of the Women of the MCC Champions Cup football tournament brought undertaken away from the building structure. interest group, Clare has spent most of her three matches to the MCG, featuring giant The majority of members and fans understood career in the community sector. She is also the clubs Real Madrid, AS Roma and Manchester and accepted the measures, and we took away founder and current chair of Cricket Without City. This was a major coup and again several learnings that were applied to the 2016 Borders, a concept designed to encourage girls demonstrated our capacity to lure big events to AFL season. around the world to play cricket. our city, as 99,382 fans (another record) packed While we did not proceed with the perimeter Adrian is a barrister who would be known the ‘G to see Ronaldo’s Real Madrid defeat fence during the football season, this does to many members from his nine years as AFL Manchester City 4-1 in the final match. not signal a reduction in the stringency of our general manager of football operations. The final crowd record at the MCG for the security procedures. Rather, it was our view, I wish to acknowledge our external year was one that was somewhat unexpected. supported by the AFL, that the different arrival stakeholders and partners, who are crucial to The Melbourne BBL derby between the Stars patterns of football patrons, and larger crowds, the successful operation of the club and the and Renegades drew an astonishing 80,833 would pose some limitations and logistical MCG, as is our band of volunteers who do so people on a balmy Saturday evening in early challenges on the existing fence design. We much for the club. January. While the crowd was 30,000 more will continue to review our security measures I would like to specifically thank MCG Trust than we had forecast, stretching our ability to ensure the MCG remains one of the safest chairman, Bob Herbert, and his trust members to service everyone the way we would like, it sporting stadiums in the world. for their support during the year. We look heralded the official arrival of Twenty20 cricket At club level, the most significant forward to continuing to work with them, the as a major event product on Melbourne’s development was the introduction of a new tier Victorian Government, AFL, Cricket Australia summer landscape. of membership, which the committee proposed and our major sponsors and suppliers. The year also saw completion of the as a method to deal with the continued growth Finally, my thanks to my committee final stage of a $40 million upgrade to the in the time people are required to wait to colleagues and the talented MCC management technology inside the MCG for use by our receive an offer of membership. team, led by our CEO Stephen Gough, who fans and stakeholders. The ground is now The final proposal, which sees a Provisional has announced his intention to retire in 2017. equipped with a high-density WiFi network, membership category that offers fewer benefits Stephen has been a driving force behind our exterior lighting, hundreds of connected TV and limited access to the Reserve than that of continued success, and has led the club through screens, LED fence signage and the two largest Full and Restricted members, was successfully a period of immense change and growth. He scoreboards at a stadium anywhere in Australia. passed by majority vote in a postal ballot will be sorely missed, not just by the club and Our number one priority is the safety of our that took place following the Annual General its many members, but by all who visit the ‘G. staff and customers, and we continue to receive Meeting. advice from authorities with respect to security Our first Provisional members were elected matters. However, global incidents of terrorism, prior to Christmas and we will review the MCC Annual Report 2015/16 1 MCC Committee 2015/16 STEVEN SMITH PRESIDENT CLARE CANNON Joined the committee in 1998. Elected vice-president Joined the committee in 2016. Member of Club and in 2011 and president in 2015. Chairman of Cricket sub-committees. Executive and Club sub-committees and ex-officio of all other sub-committees. A director of MCC Foundation and National Sports Museum Ltd. STEPHEN SPARGO AM PETER KING VICE-PRESIDENT Joined the committee in 2014. Chairman of Cricket Joined the committee in 2000. Elected vice-president Sub-committee and a member of Club Sub-committee. in 2011. Chairman of MCC Foundation Sub- A director of MCC Foundation. committee and a member of Executive and Ground sub-committees. A director of MCC Foundation and National Sports Museum Ltd. SALLY MACINDOE DAVID CROW Joined the committee in 2014. A member of Ground VICE-PRESIDENT Sub-committee and a director of MCC Foundation. Joined the committee in 1993. Member of Cricket, MCC Foundation and Executive sub-committees. A director of MCC Foundation and National Sports Museum Limited. FRED OLDFIELD Joined the committee in 2012. A member of Club, MICHAEL ANDREW AO MCC Foundation and Finance & Audit sub- VICE-PRESIDENT committees and a director of MCC Foundation. Joined the committee in 2007. Served as treasurer until 2011, at which time he resigned from the committee due to work commitments overseas.