2021 was not Raelene Castle’s best year. Her empire was the recipient of endless seismic shocks. Only the mayors of Christchurch and Kaikoura could compare notes with Castle. And the mayors could blame mother nature. Castle’s problems were of her own making. In twelve months how is this for a list?

1. A sport that holds out a begging bowl for an annual $5 million cheats at the Olympic Games.
2. A sport that holds out a begging bowl for an annual $5 million pays $20,000 to buy an athlete’s silence – to buy a lie.
3. A sport that holds out a begging bowl for an annual $5 million has one of their best athletes die – suicide, homicide, who knows?
4. A sport that holds out a begging bowl for an annual $5 million plays sex in the city around the world.
5. A sport that holds out a begging bowl for an annual $5 million loses its CEO and three coaches.
6. A sport that holds out a begging bowl for an annual $2.5 million bans a double Olympic champion.
7. A sport that holds out a begging bowl for an annual $1 million is accused by the Privacy Commissioner of a breach of member’s privacy.      
8. A sport that holds out a begging bowl for an annual $1 million appears before the Human Rights Review Tribunal on a privacy charge.      

That’s enough to make the point. When I was CEO of a good size New Zealand export company, we had a problem when a customer in Korea went into receivership just as an oil-tanker of our tallow arrived in Korea but before we had been paid. I was now the proud owner of a ship loaded with $10 million of tallow and no one to buy it. We had some low offers that would have caused a multi-million-dollar loss. And all the time our ship was floating around a harbour in Korea costing several thousand dollars a day. Eventually I went to Korea and sold the tallow over dinner at a ridiculously expensive Korean restaurant to a guy I’m glad I never had to deal with again. It cost us a million dollars. But we learned – get paid before the ship leaves New Zealand, not when it arrives somewhere on the other side of the world. It never happened again.

I tell this sorry tale to make the point that having one event like that in a career is bad enough. Raelene Castle has had eight ships adrift around the world in her first 12 months as CEO of New Zealand sport. Management means you manage problems. So, how has Raelene Castle reacted to her eight disasters?

In my view she has tried to buy her way out of trouble. Just as Podmore was bought-off with $20,000, Castle is, in my opinion, trying to spend her way out of trouble. The cost of saving Castle’s skin is mounting up.

She has formed a new complaint’s organisation called the Sport and Recreation Complaints and Mediation Service (SRCMS). How the new set-up is any different or better than the old Sports Tribunal, I have no idea. But its formation does give the impression of doing something new and that is Castle’s main concern. Whether there is any additional benefit to athletes is not the point. The point is giving the impression of concern to New Zealand’s politicians. Nothing is better for image than a boatload of expensive Queens Councils floating around Wellington Harbour.

But there is no personal gain in a new initiative unless everyone gets told you’ve done it. What’s the point in having a new organisation, even if it is not needed, unless the boss (Grant Robertson) gets told ad nauseum that it is a living symbol of your concern for athlete’s welfare. Concern that should have been shown before Podmore died. In this case “better late than never” is most certainly not the point.

And so, Castle has embarked on a publicity campaign. Wow, has she ever. In 2019 the top three companies for advertising spending were Amazon ($11.0 billion), Proctor & Gamble ($10.7 billion) and L’Oréal ($10.3 billion). I’m looking forward to Sport New Zealand’s 2021 accounts. Is top place going to Amazon or Castle?

She’s everywhere – advertising her new Sport and Recreation Complaints and Mediation Service (SRCMS). The money she is spending may have been more effective if she had found a better name. SRCMS is such an impossible mouth full. Sport and Complaints Service (SACS) might have done the trick.

For example, the Stuff website currently has 5 popup advertisements for the complaints service. The NZ Herald sports section has two. Anything vaguely about sport on You Tube has a promotion for Castle’s new organisation. Without exaggeration I have never seen such focused advertising of sport. But why?

New Zealand had a perfectly good Sports Tribunal. Was there any need for the Castle version apart from promoting the Castle image?

Is there any need for the thousands spent on advertising apart from promoting the Castle image?

The whole thing is a con to whitewash the Castle record. She has screwed up big time and is using our money to cleanse the stain. I doubt this has anything to do with Podmore, or cheating at the Olympics, or bribes, or screwing a two-time Olympic gold medallist or ignoring privacy law or sexual gymnastics on the taxpayer’s dime. No, in my view, this is about Castle paying to distance herself from a pretty smelly pile of sporting poo.

My tallow problem cost a million dollars to fix. I suspect cleansing Castle’s image is going to cost New Zealand way more than that.