{"id":772770,"date":"2026-07-01T20:07:20","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T20:07:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/772770\/"},"modified":"2026-07-01T20:07:20","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T20:07:20","slug":"portaloo-park-2-0-the-sharks-womens-team-change-near-the-mens-urinals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/772770\/","title":{"rendered":"Portaloo Park 2.0: The Sharks women\u2019s team change near the men\u2019s urinals"},"content":{"rendered":"

Opinion<\/p>\n

\"NeilNeil Breen<\/a>National sports editor<\/p>\n

July 2, 2026 \u2014 5:00am<\/p>\n

July 2, 2026 \u2014 5:00am<\/p>\n

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AAA<\/p>\n

The NRL is on the verge of announcing a $5 billion-plus television rights deal over seven years.<\/p>\n

Massive money \u2013 about $750m a year. Overall annual turnover for the game will easily exceed a billion dollars.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The game is big business, demanding the highest of standards.<\/p>\n

By and large that happens, a notable exception being Ocean Protect Stadium, AKA Shark Park, AKA Portaloo Park, which epitomises the lowest of standards. Somehow this multibillion-dollar game stands by and allows NRL matches to be played there.<\/p>\n

\"LaddersLadders and gas bottles are left haphazardly around Shark Park.Harry Breen<\/p>\n

On Thursday night the ground has the honour of hosting the NRLW season opener between the Sharks and Knights.<\/p>\n

It should be a source of great embarrassment and shame to the game that the Sharks women\u2019s team don\u2019t have their own dressing shed. They use the decaying men\u2019s team shed, putting on their playing gear near the urinals. There are only three regular toilets and the showers have no doors. It\u2019s unacceptable, yet somehow allowed.<\/p>\n

Last year in this publication we documented the poor state of the ground<\/a>. The photos shocked many in the game and led to ridicule for the Sharks.<\/p>\n

A year on, we\u2019re unhappy to report nothing much has changed, as can be seen in photos we took at a recent home match.<\/p>\n

In fact, they\u2019ve gotten worse.<\/p>\n

On the eastern side there are holes in the roof of the grandstand you could drive a truck through. Fans aren\u2019t allowed on the upper level of that stand \u2013 it\u2019s been condemned \u2013 but thousands sit on the lower level and directly in front of it. Heaven forbid there\u2019s a gust of wind.<\/p>\n

\"SharkShark Park is not up to NRL standards.Harry Breen<\/p>\n

The portaloos, of course, still take pride of place as there aren\u2019t nearly enough toilets for crowds of 13,500. Bins are randomly placed, ladders seem to be left wherever the last worker finished a job, along with gas bottles.<\/p>\n

Thin plastic strips are used to block unsafe stairwells and electrical cords run everywhere.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Shark<\/a><\/p>\n

These aren\u2019t behind-the-scenes photos. They were all taken in public areas.<\/p>\n

The problem for the club is, no-one wants to help. Because the ground is owned by the club\u2019s members, and not the local council or state government, they wash their hands of it.<\/p>\n

Sutherland Shire Council runs a million miles when asked. When this masthead sent our pics of Shark Park in action to the council with a string of questions, this is what we received: \u201cThe stadium is owned and operated by the club, and responsibility for day-to-day patron safety, event management, crowd control and emergency management sits with the venue operator and event organiser.<\/p>\n

\u201cCouncil is not the owner or operator of the venue and does not certify its operational safety. Council\u2019s role is limited to matters with is its statutory responsibilities.<\/p>\n

\u201cSafety issues are primarily the responsibility of the venue operator, event organiser and SafeWork NSW.\u201d<\/p>\n

Which is an odd response. Try doing an extension on your house in the Sutherland Shire and see how far you get without council approval. They\u2019d be all over you like calamine lotion.<\/p>\n

\"SharkShark Park will host a NRLW match on Thursday night.Harry Breen<\/p>\n

On council\u2019s suggestion, we went to SafeWork NSW, who told us to ask the council.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re getting giddy from being given the runaround.<\/p>\n

After pouring money into Allianz Stadium and CommBank Stadium, the state government has turned its attention to new projects. One is Penrith Park, while modest money has been pledged to improve Leichhardt Oval and Campbelltown Stadium with local councils and the federal government.<\/p>\n

State government sources, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of sensitive commercial issues, told this masthead there was no appetite to contribute to Shark Park.<\/p>\n

\"SharkShark Park is in dire need of an upgrade.Harry Breen<\/p>\n

Labor Premier Chris Minns is on record many times as saying he does not want to fund sporting stadiums ahead of services such as health and education.<\/p>\n

In no particular order, the government\u2019s very limited budget has priorities far higher than Cronulla, such as completion of improvements at Newcastle\u2019s McDonald Jones Stadium, WIN Stadium in Wollongong and Accor Stadium ahead of hosting the Rugby World Cup final next year.<\/p>\n

Also on the list are updating the Brewongle, Trumper, O\u2019Reilly and Churchill stands at the SCG, which is an enormous project and one Venues NSW has made a priority.<\/p>\n

Those stadiums have a common denominator \u2013 they are under the control of Venues NSW.<\/p>\n

\"FundingFunding to fix Shark Park is unlikely anytime soon.Harry Breen<\/p>\n

Leichhardt and Campbelltown received funding because they\u2019re council-owned, and it was in the respective council\u2019s interest to lean on state and federal governments.<\/p>\n

So the Sharks are friendless, waiting for their clubhouse to be finished later this year so a proper cash flow can return.<\/p>\n

It was closed in 2019 and has taken seven years. Sydney built its Olympic venues in five years.<\/p>\n

We don\u2019t hold our breath for a female dressing shed or a new toilet block at Portaloo Park any time soon.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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\"NeilNeil Breen<\/a> is the national sports editor and a Walkley Award-winning journalist.Connect via X<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Opinion Neil BreenNational sports editor July 2, 2026 \u2014 5:00am July 2, 2026 \u2014 5:00am Save You have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":772771,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-772770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/772770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=772770"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/772770\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/772771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=772770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=772770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=772770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}