War of words between Auckland Mayor, Eden Park Trust as funding debate rages

Thursday, 1 November 2018

The debate around Eden Park is ongoing. Residents views. First published in Sept 2018

Auckland Mayor Phil Goff has attacked the Eden Park Trust Board, accusing it of being 'disingenuous' during stadium funding talks.

But trust chairman Doug McKay has fired back at the Auckland Mayor, calling his comments unprofessional and unfair.

The war of words follows last year's funding request by the board for $1.5 million to replace the stadium's turf. In a subsequent letter, sent in December 2017, McKay expressed disappointment in the council's decision not to fund the turf.

Auckland Mayor Phil Goff has accused the Eden Park Trust Board of being 'disingenuous'.

In an interview with Stuff this week, Goff said ratepayers had already committed millions of dollars to propping up Eden Park.

The debate around who should pay for Eden Park is raging once again.

'Eden Park at the moment isn't financially viable. It can't meet depreciation costs,' he said.

'We are guarantors for a loan that will eventually end up on council books, so it's disingenuous for the Eden Park Trust Board to say it's only a guarantee.

Eden Park Trust chairman Doug McKay says Goff's comments are 'not fair' and 'not very professional'.

'The ratepayer will end up picking up $40m, plus the $6.5m they [Eden Park] owe – that's a lot of money we're putting in.'

Auckland Council had already guaranteed a $40m loan made by ASB Bank to the Eden Park Trust Board.

The council was expected next year to absorb that debt onto its books in some form.

But McKay said the mayor's 'disingenuous' accusation was 'not fair' and 'not very professional'.

'You've got to go back in terms of the history of why it ended up being what it was,' McKay said.

'Because the Government put in $190m and the then eight or nine councillors of Auckland couldn't get their act together and the stadium had to be started to run the [2011] World Cup.

'Eden Park ended up carrying the commitment to Fletcher to build the stadium [while] $40m short, because the councils wouldn't front up.

'So that is the truth of the history and it's very convenient for him to frame it that way, but that's not how I see it.'

Goff suggested Eden Park might need $5m to $10m a year to stay viable, and ruled out making an ad hoc decision to start committing council funding.

'We don't own it, we don't appoint the directors to it, it's a stadium owned by a trust with the directors appointed by two sporting bodies and the central Government,' he said.

'So before we get drawn into what will be a considerable commitment of ratepayer money, we've got to have a framework around that stadium to know what its future might be.

'We're not going to pour money into it … without having a say over accountability of how that money is spent or where the proceeds from that park would go if it were eventually sold.'

McKay said Goff had not raised the accountability issue with him, but added 'of course we would welcome accountability'.

He also pointed to the Eden Park Trust deed, which stated the park was 'to operate for the benefit of the people of Auckland'.

'My view is that the stadium organisation (council-owned Regional Facilities Auckland) completely ignores us and worse – they actually compete with us and they steal our hirers away with their 38 cents on the dollar ratepayer subsidy,' McKay said.

'We get no subsidy, they don't pay rates, we pay full rates. We pay along the way for everything – which is fine – they don't.

'RFA have never, ever … included us in any stadium strategy discussion.'