CEO’S REPORT

MARK CONDI, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER “Our entire team was able to demonstrate strength, business-minded leadership and determination to place the best interests of our staff, members and our community at the heart of all we do.”

This year has been incredibly hard for our country, the awful bushfires in December/ January, floods in February and now COVID-19. This year has been about resilience from both our community and our staff - what strong people we are. In February 2020 we launched our ‘South Coast Pale Ale’ brewed in our Basement Brewhouse, with all proceeds going towards supporting south coast clubs who had suffered through the awful bushfire season. We went from supporting these amazing community focused clubs, to having to focus on saving our club during the COVID-19 shutdown.

In December 2019 our Executive Management team sought to make some progressive and forward-thinking changes for Bankstown Sports. While this was an incredibly challenging and difficult process, it ensured our entire team was able to demonstrate strength, business-minded leadership and determination to place the best interests of our staff, members and our community at the heart of all we do. This process resulted in expense redirections and operative changes that will make a drastic impact on our organisation’s success, setting us up to ensure we can continue to make a difference in our community. We’ve made hard decisions, lost some incredibly valued staff and had to reposition some of our offerings. We hope to see the benefit of this process deliver return for many years to come. However, communicating the implications of the Government enforced closure of our industry to the staff of Bankstown Sports and our associated venues was one of the biggest challenges I have faced as CEO. Standing down our valued team prior to the announcements of official Government support left me feeling helpless. Seeing Bankstown Sports completely vacant of members was also heart-breaking. Pouring my whole career into Bankstown Sports, I knew it was not the end, and ultimately our organisation is just a small part of the devastating economic impacts of COVID-19 that unfortunately still rein for many organisations globally. As we re-opened on 1 June 2020, I was so proud of our staff. We have an incredible team that demonstrated our new Culture Value Focus, each bringing with them a cando attitude, a willingness to be a team player, ready to surprise and delight our customers. This renewed focus represents how we bring people into our organisation, how we each work together and how we will continue to deliver a difference to the community we serve. As hard as this year has been, I am so grateful for the opportunities it has provided us all. I am part of a team who do not take working for Bankstown Sports for granted – to be part of our organisation is a privilege, and I thank each and every one of our staff and members for contributing to the Bankstown Sports momentum.