Read on for the latest news from around the grounds in Canberra sport. We've got a potential answer to the stadium war, a bizarre drug-fuelled alternative to the Olympics and Ashes feuds.
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![Could businessman Terry Snow help Canberra's stadium dream become a reality? Main picture by Rohan Thomson Could businessman Terry Snow help Canberra's stadium dream become a reality? Main picture by Rohan Thomson](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/j2iwCiKfwhVWJky39Vsdpt/2de0027b-9393-464b-a0e4-343220fa9448.jpg/r0_0_2880_1619_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
It's easier to spend someone else's money while you're scraping the bottom of the centre console for loose change.
So let's throw some of the $1.5 billion Canberra Airport owner Terry Snow has at a new stadium in the city and call it the Snow Dome.
The Canberra stadium saga has burst through the walls of Parliament House this week as the NRL renews calls for a new venue to improve the city.
ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr is targeting a Canberra Stadium makeover in Bruce, while NRL, Super Rugby and A-League officials want a brand new venue in Civic.
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But nobody wants to pay for it.
If anyone in this city can bankroll the project, it's the head of the Canberra Airport Group listed at No.31 on Forbes' Australian rich list.
Snow joined the billionaire's club in 2017 following a massive increase in the value of his property around the capital city's main airport.
The 79-year-old's investments in developing the airport and building office and industrial parks on the 1062 acres of surrounding land total more than $2 billion.
The prospect of the Canberra Airport Group bankrolling the project barely raises a smile on the face of chief executive Stephen Byron.
But it's worth a conversation.
Which is why, he says, it's "our turn" for a stadium.
"The Australian government needs to recognise that as a community, we are part of Australia, we too deserve community infrastructure, such as a meeting place for the tribal activity of watching sport," Byron told The Canberra Times.
"They've done it for Townsville, they've done it for Parramatta, they've done it for Hobart. And in reality, it's our turn.
"Whilst it's probably frustrating for the federal government not to be formally asked and not to know where it might happen, I think they need to say we recognise that the national capital needs a stadium that is the national stadium befitting of a national capital, and they ought to put some money on the table, and then the ACT government should be jolted into action by that."
PONTING SAVAGES POM
![Ricky Ponting savaged English quick Ollie Robinson. Picture by Melissa Adams Ricky Ponting savaged English quick Ollie Robinson. Picture by Melissa Adams](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/36vwtM5n3dmMVgNPycRBEHz/9a5bc96a-7ec9-44d9-a6d0-6022b68bee90.jpg/r0_180_3678_2248_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
The days of Ricky Ponting terrorising an English bowler with a bat in hand might be done - but the scars remain and the ex-Australian captain isn't done yet.
Ollie Robinson attracted headlines when he first swore at Usman Khawaja after dismissing him - for 141, no less - before doubling down later in Australia's miraculous Ashes Test win at Edgbaston.
The English quick suggested the Australians couldn't handle sledging and then dropped Ponting's name when saying the hosts had been on the wrong end of verbal barrages for years.
"Some of the things he had to say - I mean he even brought my name into it, which I felt was a little bit unusual, but for me it's water off a duck's back," Ponting said on the ICC Review podcast.
"If he is sitting back thinking about me, then no wonder he bowled like the way that he did in that game, if he's worried about what I did 15 years ago.
"He'll learn pretty quickly that if you're going to talk to Australian cricketers in an Ashes series, then you want to be able to back it up with your skills."
AN ENHANCED GAME
![A coalition of Olympic athletes, doctors and scientists are behind the creation of the Enhanced Games. Picture Getty Images A coalition of Olympic athletes, doctors and scientists are behind the creation of the Enhanced Games. Picture Getty Images](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/36vwtM5n3dmMVgNPycRBEHz/222615c0-934c-4b9a-91b9-a7b545871eec.jpg/r0_55_1024_631_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Ever get an email and wonder if it should be in your spam folder with the Nigerian princes asking for all your money?
A coalition of Olympic athletes, doctors and scientists are behind the creation of the Enhanced Games - "a direct challenger to the Olympic Games that aims to celebrate the best of humanity and science".
An Enhanced Games would have no drug testing and fully support performance enhancements.
Their website calls IOC president Thomas Bach, WADA president Craig Collins Reedie, Sport Integrity Australia chief David Sharpe and John Coates "enemies of science" and lists them in a hall of shame.
Enhanced Games president Aron D'Souza - who studied in Melbourne - says "we all know that the use of performance enhancements in sports is an open secret", and "the safest way to level the playing field is to allow athletes to openly use science to achieve their full potential".
Sure.
Three-time Olympian Brett Fraser represented the Cayman Islands in swimming, and serves as the Enhanced Games' chief athletes officer.
But as for which sports will be involved and where the juiced-up games will be hosted? No idea yet. Shocking, that.
PATTY FROM MONASH TO MILAN
![Patty and Alyssa Mills were front and centre at Milan fashion week. Picture Instagram Patty and Alyssa Mills were front and centre at Milan fashion week. Picture Instagram](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/36vwtM5n3dmMVgNPycRBEHz/ba25fb59-b3da-4e78-a8a2-98500aa89fa3.png/r0_0_1325_1360_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
When you start listing people you'd expect to find in the front row at a Milan fashion week event, how long would it take you to get to Patty Mills from Monash?
That's just where the NBA player found himself in a gold double-breasted Dolce & Gabbana suit alongside wife Alyssa, toasting the new collection with Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana.
Mills traded his Brooklyn Nets NBA jersey to see fashion's biggest brands debut their spring and summer collections for 2024 against the backdrop of Milan's most exclusive venues.
If he wasn't dripping in gold, he was decked out in double denim and a white singlet in Milan's cobblestone streets.
The collection Mills wore, called Stile, is aimed at reflecting Dolce & Gabbana's minimal traditions and defined as "respect for identity, for an imagery that has been created over time".
Questions hover over Mills' future in the NBA after falling out of Brooklyn's rotation this past season, averaging just 14.2 minutes across the 40 matches he played - his least in 11 years.
Australian Boomers coach Brian Goorjian believes the 34-year-old Canberran can use the upcoming World Cup to showcase what he can still offer in the NBA.
Mills is off-contract at the end of next season and was named in Goorjian's 18-man squad for the FIBA World Cup beginning on August 25.
Mills will be 35 when he hits free agency and whispers could grow louder about the prospect of finishing his career in the NBL.
NBL bosses still have ambitions to expand to Canberra, which would set the scene for an emotional homecoming to close out Mills' career.
League boss Larry Kestelman is aiming to introduce three to five new teams in the next three years, with AIS Arena redevelopments potentially working in Canberra's favour.
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