OPINION: Opponents win court battle but what about the war for Eden Park
Friday, 27 July 2018
OPINION: Opponents of the charity concert have won the battle with Eden Park, but the stadium's decision to pull the plug just clears the way for bigger decisions about its future.
Sir Ray Avery's plan to stage a fund-raising concert wouldn't have earned the Eden Park Trust Board much, but a successful event would have strengthened its case for future cash-generators.
Eden Park needs those, to have a viable future in its current form.
It made a record $5.5 million operating profit last year, helped by the one-off Lions rugby tour.
But the elephant in the stadium is the depreciation cost of $8.6 million which dragged it into the red - as usual.
Depreciation is accountant's talk for providing for the cost of eventually replacing or overhauling the bricks and mortar.
There is, though, a cocktail of planning constraints, debt, and at times interests in conflict with the city's council-owned stadia.
The fate of the Avery concert has clarified one thing for the stadium's owners. While it has the right to seek permission for up to six concerts a year, the hurdle seems far too high.
Well-organised opposition meant the trust board faced a five-month or longer span from launching the concept, to getting a resource consent decision. And then maybe rejection.
Even the staple diet of international cricket and rugby is not a certainty.
There is the news that Indian broadcasters, to whom New Zealand Cricket sells television rights, are reported to want games in next year's tour by India played later than Eden Park's consents allow.
Eden Park remains apart from Auckland's stadium strategy, drawn up by the council agency Regional Facilities Auckland which owns most other venues.
The strategy envisages some international cricket moving to Western Springs.
Stuff understands the trust board may not give that up without a fight, though how that would play out is unclear.
Negotiations are also underway behind the scenes over the future of the trust board's $50 million debt, the repayment of most of which is underwritten by the council.
'The cost of servicing this debt is significant and limits EPT's ability to reduce debt or invest in capital expenditure to continually upgrade the stadium and maintain it as a world class facility and asset. This remains an ongoing issue for the Trust,' wrote the chair Doug McKay in the trust's last annual report.
The council's moves on the debt guarantee remain confidential, but involve restructuring, which might conceivably give it a slightly bigger role in the stadium's affairs.
The notion that Eden Park might simply fold-up its $200m stadium in a decade or so, and make way for a downtown stadium, is still fanciful.
The trust is not planning to go away - symbolised most in it branding itself as New Zealand's 'national stadium', the code words favoured by the mayor Phil Goff for a downtown stadium, possibly part-funded by the government.
Despite commissioning an initial report costing ratepayers $935,000, the consultants raised more questions than answers about the location, practicality, and business case for spending $1 billion on a multi-purpose stadium, likely adjacent to the Vector Arena.
The recent public opinion survey conducted by pollsters UMR for the trust board contained questions that show Eden Park is arming itself for new debate about it's future.
'To what extent do you agree or disagree with the following: Eden Park has a long proud sporting history that we must preserve?' garnered 79 per cent support from those described as local residents.
'What about if there was a retractable roof on Eden Park deadening the noise?' was another telling question, which had a follow-up:
'Would you support or oppose Eden Park having a maximum of 40 night-time events which would be made up of the existing 25 rugby and cricket games and an extra 15 nights for concerts and other events?'
Some 82 per cent of the 'local resident' group supported that concept.
The lull descending on debate about Eden Park is temporary.