Asked about his financial difficulties, Doherty told The Sunday Age that postponing the event four times, after restrictions forced him to shut the 2020 event one week after the melbourne grand prix was cancelled, had cost him $1.6 million.
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“It’s pretty hard to recover from,” he said.
“It is correct that the pandemic devastated our expo business, causing significant financial loss. However, at all times we have remained positive and are working hard re-establishing our businesses, which is progressing well, and we are looking forward to the future.”
Doherty – who witnessed the near-fatal shooting of Bandidos boss Toby Mitchell outside his flagship gym in Brunswick in 2011 – warned in a 2020 interview that the COVID-19 impact on his expo business could bankrupt him.
Speaking at the time about the closure of the Arnold Sports Festival with bodybuilding vlogger Dave Palumbo of RXMuscle, Doherty said: “[We] just took the hit, just moved some stuff around and if it had have been more, honestly, it would have wiped me out, like it was this close.
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“I guess I was lucky that three or four of our probably four or five of our big sponsors and exhibitors who’d put their money in agreed to leave it in for next…
