With the recent World Rally Championships, Supercars, Rugby World Cup, Softball World Cup and ASB Classic and Fifa Women’s World Cup next year, it feels like this is a golden era for international sporting events in New Zealand .
Things are currently looking so good due to Covid-19 that some events planned for 2021 have been postponed to this year.
But while all is looking rosy now, the real fear is that by 2024 the cupboard will be empty unless there are urgent cash inflows to fund more major events.
This is due to the current lack of funding for major events, increased competition from other cities around the world and generally increasing costs for holding events.
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“We have looked at the landscape of the big events industry on a global scale and over the last six months we have seen that Australian states have invested a significant amount in big events budgets, over US$150 million, and have leveraged big events as a crucial form of economic activity Recovery,” said Chris Simpson, Head of Major Events at Tātaki Auckland Unlimited.
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Chris Simpson, Head of Major Events at Auckland Unlimited.
“We have also noticed that many of the international rights holders who own these major events have increased their hosting fees and commercial expectations.
“We can no longer rest on our laurels when we say that we are a wonderful country for major events because of our safety and our great international reputation. We are in a situation where the market has changed and delivery costs have also increased significantly, for example freight costs.
“We’re in this precarious position at the moment and in the last four months we’ve been doing major events like the Rugby World Cup, World Rally Champions, Supercars and looking at 10 major events that we’ve introduced in the last three or four months it’s the Brought in Economy $18.7 million based on a $4.8 million investment.
“The problem is that many of these events from previous years have been postponed and were scheduled for 2020 or 2021.
“So we have a really good range of big events happening now and next year with events like the Fifa Women’s World Cup and big concerts.
“So we’re looking good for 2023, but it’s more about 2024 and beyond. All funding for today’s events was committed at least two years ago, possibly even longer.
“We probably have an unrealistic idea of how wonderful big events are because we have them almost every weekend.
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The major sporting event in New Zealand next year will be the women’s Fifa World Cup, co-hosted with Australia.
“We need to plan now for what 2024 and beyond will look like, and we’re looking at new funding models and best practice models that other cities around the world have adopted.”
When it comes to major international sporting events, Auckland is the only city big enough to compete globally, but two of this year’s major sporting events will definitely not be happening again in 2023, despite being annual.
Supercars removed New Zealand from their calendar for next year as they could not find a circuit to replace Pukekohe Park.
Tātaki Auckland Unlimited contributed $1.2 million to the Supercars round, but as the event is no longer scheduled to take place within its confines if or when it returns, it certainly won’t and won’t invest that much money in the future do be the driving force behind it.
“We’re very keen for Supercars to come back and Supercars are very keen on hosting an event in New Zealand again at some point,” said Simpson.
“But with Pukekohe Park not available, it’s back on the supercar drawing board.
“We have indicated our verbal support and are anxious for something to happen but are aware they may be considering a couple of venues including Hampton Downs.
“That’s driven by the central government for supercars and major events because it doesn’t officially go into our catchment area.
“So it has to be driven by central government and they would probably bring people like Hamilton City Council and Supercars together and we could be invited to the table to discuss it, but it’s not the place of our city, just outside of ours region to drive.
Simpson said Tātaki Auckland Unlimited was also keen to bring Rally NZ back as a World Rally Championship event next year, but as WRC Promoter Events Director Simon Larkin Stuff said during this year’s rally in October, Rally NZ organizers were who had pulled the pin in talks for 2023 but were hoping to put it back on the calendar in 2024.
“We’re very keen to get it back and we’ve indicated we’d be looking forward to next year, but the WRC ended up going to Chile so that’s what we wanted.”
A problem facing Tātaki Auckland Unlimited and the events industry across New Zealand is the funding or lack of funds to capture these major sporting events.
“There isn’t a single source of funding that we need to tap into,” Simpson said.
“Until 2019 we had a target rate for accommodation providers based on visitor nights from the accommodation sector. That helped with our major events fund and when Covid 2020 hit it all stopped and we got some central government funding called the Regional Events Fund which is running out.
“Essentially that’s done by 2024 and we have very little of it left.
“It’s a critical time now,” Simpson added.
“It’s an interesting time in the lifespan of major events in New Zealand. Coming out of Covid, countries and cities around the world have decided they need major economic recovery events.
“We have a number of events that we are doing now which gives a false sense of security but we need to plan now for 2024 and beyond because we don’t want to crash off a cliff in 2024 and don’t have any major events.”
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