John Coates pulls Sydney crowd for Rio Olympics send off

As if the pressure on our Olympians wasn't piling up already, the top end of Sydney Town piled into the Star casino on Wednesday night to wave them off to Rio de Janeiro with their bulging wallets.

Serenaded by Kasey Chambers and Greta Bradman, fired up by Vlad Putin's sparring partner and IOC member John Coates, then taken for all they were worth by auctioneer David Koch (who was landing bids upwards of $35,000 for tickets to Rio), the gentry got their money's worth at an eye-watering $15,000 per table.

And of whom do we speak? Seven Group CEO Ryan Stokes and Australian Capital Equity director Warwick Smith hosted UBS chief executive Matthew Grounds, Seven's chief revenue officer Kurt "Alert" Burnette (who was chatting with predecessor, now Supercars CEO James Warburton) and head of sport Saul Shtein, just a table from their regional affiliate Prime, its chairman John Hartigan and CEO Ian "Ordinary" Audsley. Vitamin Rich Lister Marcus Blackmore hosted a table, as did DEXUS Property Group's Darren Steinberg, Grant Samuels' Ross Grant (hosting Fairfax Media and Slater & Gordon director James Millar), Star Entertainment chairman John O'Neill and CEO Matt Bekier, Ramsay Health Care chair Michael Siddle, Whitehaven Coal chief Paul Flynn (hosting Corrs partner Andrew Lumsden and ITOCHU managing director Toshiyuki Yotsui – who we briefly mistook for the Iron Chef), chief AOC fundraiser (and, as it happens, a Whitehaven director) John Conde, Alceon's Phil Green, Ernst & Young CEO Tony Johnson and his BD lead Lynn Kraus, Herbert Smith Freehills partners Martin Shakinovsky, Joel Rennie, David Ryan and Al Donald. Former Premiers Nick Greiner and John Fahey sat cheek by jowl with Liberal Party state president and North Sydney MP Trent Zimmerman and fundie Charlie Aitken, while News Corp's corporate affairs boss Campbell Reid led the Murdoch troops not worthy of a London call-up. But it was The Lion of Timor Peter Cosgrove (seated with Premier Mike Baird) who stole the show with his Gough Whitlam routine ("because nothing will save the Governor-General). When his term expires in 2018, the Comedy Store awaits.

After dinner, guests headed downstairs to Teage Ezard's Black for the Stilnox after-party.

PM Malcolm Turnbull and former Telstra boss David Thodey will co-host the big Melbourne send-off on June 18 at the Exhibition Centre. And in comparison, this one was cheap. The Mexicans (as Coates calls them) are charging $40,000 per table!