The eyes of the cricketing world are on Perth. But about that stadium...

3 months ago 4

Opinion

November 21, 2025 — 5.00pm

Three people dead in the space of in 13 hours, the potential result of a catastrophic triple-zero failure by Optus.

Yet, the Singaporean-owned telecommunications giant still retains its naming rights to Western Australia’s premier sporting venue.

Optus has held the naming rights to Perth’s premier sporting stadium since 2017. But after a string of recent scandals, does it still deserve to?

WA’s Labor government agreed to an estimated $50 million, 10-year naming rights deal in 2017 – much to the disquiet of the stadium’s mastermind, former Liberal premier Colin Barnett.

The words “Optus Stadium Yes” have adorned the stadium in Burswood Park ever since, and are splashed across news and sports coverage worldwide.

But cut to present day, when, on September 18, a network upgrade resulted in hundreds of Optus customers not being able to get through emergency services in South Australia, Northern Territory and WA.

Optus also failed to promptly notify the governments in each affected states about the network outage.

The death of Perth man Christopher Oliver on that day has been linked to the failure.

Optus has already paid $12 million for another major breach of emergency call rules in November 2024, following a separate triple zero outage investigated by the Australian Communications and Media Authority.

Earlier this month, Optus head Stephen Rue told a senate inquiry that “... on behalf of Optus, the board, the executive team, and the thousands of people across Australia who work at Optus, what happened on 18 September is unacceptable”.

“As the CEO, I am accountable for Optus’ failings, and I am deeply sorry.”

WA opposition sport and recreation spokesman, the Nationals’ Peter Rundle, believes Optus’ position as stadium sponsor is untenable.

“Optus cannot keep splashing its logo across Perth Stadium when West Australians have lost their lives because of its negligence,” he said in the wake of the outage in September.

Opposition Leader Basil Zempilas has also called on Deputy Premier and Sports and Recreation Minister Rita Saffioti to “step up, do the right thing and take the name down”.

Saffioti said at the time the question of naming rights was “not a focus at the moment”.

“Our focus is really understanding what transpired,” she said.

Now, with the focus of the world’s media on Perth and the stadium on day one of the Ashes, perhaps the minister could now turn her mind to the message it sends by allowing Optus to keep its name on the sporting coliseum.

Granted, due to Cricket Australia’s contractual obligations, the arena is known as Perth Stadium for major international matches played there, and Optus branding is stripped away or covered up – save for those three words emblazoned across the side of the stadium.

However, with the naming rights deal due to expire in 2027, the question has to be asked: why does the state government not pull down Optus’ name immediately?

Pay back the telco $10 million for the final two years of the contract – if that is what the company would require.

Only then, will Optus be held truly accountable for its failings.

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