John Coates (sports administrator)

Personal

Born in Sydney, the son of a solicitor, Coates was brought up in the Sydney suburb of Strathfield. He attended Homebush Boys High School. He was keen on sports at school, captaining a representative cricket XI. He took a day off school in early 1964 to watch Richie Benaud play his last test match, and a photograph appeared in The Sydney Morning Herald the next day of a beaming Coates alongside Benaud as he left the field of play. Failing to make the school's senior cricket sides he took up rowing when the school introduced the sport in 1966, coxing the school's boats to victories over more experienced crews from established rowing schools at several regattas.

After leaving school he studied at the University of Sydney, and qualified as a solicitor. The father of six children, he is now divorced.

Career as a sports administrator

Having remained involved with the sport of rowing through Sydney Rowing Club, Coates was in 1978 elected to the (now defunct) position of Honorary Secretary of the Australian Amateur Rowing Council (now Rowing Australia) and in 1983 became President (and from 1984 Chairman). He continued in this role until 1988.

Coates has been virtually a fixture at the Summer Olympics for more than 30 years, having been Australian Olympic Team Rowing Section Manager at the Montreal Games (1976), Administration Director at the Moscow Games (1980), Deputy Chef de mission at the Los Angeles Games (1984), and Chef de mission at the Seoul (1988), Barcelona (1992), Atlanta (1996), Sydney (2000), Athens (2004) and Beijing (2008) Games.

Current positions include:

Other official positions previously held include:

In 2016 it was reported that Coates was paid a salary of A$689,634 in 2015 as Executive Chairman of the Australian Olympic Committee and that he had collected A$7.05 million in consulting fees and allowances between 2000 and 2016.

Olympic bids

He has been a part of a number of Olympic bids including the Brisbane 1992 Olympic Games Bid, Melbourne Olympic Games Bid Strategy Committee, and the 1991-1993 Sydney Olympics 2000 Bid Limited.

Coates was Vice President of the Sydney Olympic Bid Committee. He played a key role in bringing the 2000 Olympics to Australia and in its delivery.

Prior to the Sydney 2000 Olympics, Coates offered African countries scholarships allowing their athletes to train in Adelaide in the lead up to the Sydney Games. 400 athletes from 11 African nations took part in the special Olympic Training Camp. Under the program the visiting teams received all meals, accommodation, training facilities, local transport, and access to sports medicine experts. In total, the Program provided $2 million to support the development of African athletes and coaches who participated in the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. The bulk of that amount was spent in Australia.The controversy caused by this was fully investigated by the IOC and Mr Coates was cleared of any wrongdoing.

Coates was quoted as saying "I wasn't going to die wondering why we didn't win, like we didn't win (when competing with) Brisbane or Melbourne. We needed to get our fair share of votes out of Africa."

In an article published in Sydney's Daily Telegraph on 27 January 1999, Coates said Australian officials had at first been "terribly naive" about the bidding process but soon "refined" their efforts. Based on the lessons of two failed Games bids (Brisbane and Melbourne), Coates produced a 16-page strategy document. With government support, the budget for securing IOC delegates' support was increased from A$6 million for the Brisbane bid to A$28 million for Sydney.

As he explained: Over the course of my involvement with three Australian Olympic bids, I watched this bidding process get out of hand. After a relatively benign process delivered the 1988 Games to Seoul, the 1992 bid took the process to a new level of professionalism and competition. That escalation continued for the 1996 and 2000 bids, with each successive bidder seeking an edge.

Controversy

In 1980 Coates was at the heart of the controversy as to whether Australia should boycott the Summer Games in Moscow. He was adamant that, as one of the two countries that had participated at every games, Australia's sporting bodies should not bow to political pressure to boycott, but rather should indeed send a team to Moscow.

In the mid-1990s Coates together with Leo Wallner, then Austrian Olympic Committee president and head of Casinos Austria, joined with the Australian Olympic Committee's investment arm, under Coates' leadership, to invest in the establishment of a casino in Cairns in north-east Australia. In 2007 Coates said We held onto our shares and sold them only last year. Our original investment was $7 million and we ended up losing $3.5 million.

In 1997 Coates and then NSW State Treasurer Michael Egan engaged in a dispute over an alleged conflict of interest arising from criticisms Coates had made in regard to accommodation taxes imposed by the government.

Coates and Sydney radio host Alan Jones have had a long-standing feud that has occasionally ended in litigation. In April 2007 this litigation was concluded when Coates was awarded $360,000 damages when a jury found a broadcast made by Jones in December 2004 conveyed defamatory meanings.

In August 2007 during a broadcast from Beijing, Jones made comments, based on wire service reports, about an interview that Coates had given in which it was alleged that he (Coates) had made disparaging remarks about Beijing. Subsequently, in October 2007, Jones apologised to Coates on air for his comments.

Business career

Coates is currently chairman of William Inglis & Son Ltd, a bloodstock auction and financial services company; a member of Grant Samuel Advisory Board, a member of the European Australian Business Council and member of the Sydney Olympic Park Authority board.

He is a former deputy chairman and non-executive director of David Jones Limited; and former partner in the Sydney law firm of Kemp Strang. He is a former director of the Australian subsidiaries of Grosvenor Group Limited, a property development company privately owned by the Duke of Westminster.

He has previously served on the boards of several state and federal statutory bodies, charities and companies, including, from just after the 2000 Olympic Games, the Australian subsidiary of the public relations company Burson-Marsteller.

Honours and awards

Coates was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia in 2006. He had previously been appointed as a Member of the Order of Australia in 1989 and an Officer of the Order of Australia in 1995. In 2001 he was awarded an Australian Sports Medal.

In 1993 Coates was made a life member of Rowing Australia, an honour bestowed only on five others. He is an honorary life member of Sydney Rowing Club.

In December 1993 he was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame.

In 2003 Coates became the fourth Australian to present the prizes at the conclusion of the annual Henley Regatta. Usually this honour is reserved for royalty, diplomats or a leading politician. He was the first person to present the Princess Grace Challenge Cup.

In 2000 he was awarded the Olympic Order in Gold and the FISA Medal of Honour.