Coronavirus should not prolong Auckland's stadium re-shuffle
Friday, 18 September 2020
OPINION: As Covid-19 re-shapes many people’s lives, it is easy to say this is no time to be talking about sorting out Auckland’s collection of struggling stadia.
The opposite, in fact, may be true. With public budgets squeezed, and almost record crowds at Eden Park when lockdown gave way to domestic Super Rugby Aotearoa, now may be a good time to get cracking.
The rugby crowds showed just how much Aucklanders valued a few hours of top sporting entertainment, and the stadium reshuffle could save ratepayer money and improve sport and concert venues.
There are big, complicated processes underway, but Eden Park Trust Board chairman Doug McKay this month gave councillors a picture of what the future might look like.
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He described a possible joint venture between the trust-owned Eden Park and the council’s three biggest venues – Mt Smart, QBE, and Western Springs – sharing expertise and rationalising what goes where.
Eden Park’s original users from the early 1900s, Auckland Cricket and Auckland Rugby, were ready to relinquish some current benefits and use of the number two ground if alternatives were available.
The stadium’s application to gain planning consent to stage six concerts a year as-of-right goes to a hearing in November, another crucial step if costly upgrades to Mt Smart are to be averted.
Concerts at Eden Park are opposed by some of those who live in surrounding streets, and while the idea has financial merit, it will be judged on planning criteria.
Other moving parts in the stadia reshuffle include the completion of a review of Auckland’s council-controlled-organisations (CCOs), prompting the merger of venue operator Regional Facilities Auckland with event arm Auckland Tourism, Events and Economic Development.
This may give impetus to the eight-year-long job of trying to rationalise major council-owned sporting venues, which includes having a single stadium for top-level rugby, rugby league and football.
The council’s 2019 $63 million bailout of Eden Park and an estimated $482 million involved in extending the life of Mt Smart and other stadia as top-level venues makes the Sandringham stadium the obvious choice.
McKay said prior to Covid-19 upending the season for rugby league’s Warriors for whom Mt Smart is home, relations had been good.
Eden Park was set to stage a Warriors game and a Blues rugby clash on the same day, but they were among the first sporting casualties of the Covid-19 lockdown.
Eden Park’s trust ownership – a model that involves five government-appointed trustees – is enshrined in legislation.
However, McKay said the Labour-led government is prepared to change those laws to give the council a bigger role.
The lid on the coffin containing plans for a downtown or waterfront stadium was already well nailed-down, but Covid-19’s squeeze on public budget means it won’t be prised open in the foreseeable future.
With even domestic travel harder than it was, and international travel on the back burner for much longer, giving Aucklanders a chance for great experiences closer to home has become more, not less important.
Similarly, the argument to spend less ratepayer money on a collection of ageing stadia and make better use of what Auckland already has also become more compelling.
The risks include a possible loss of momentum as the merger of RFA and ATEED takes place, but the stadia equivalent of “walking and chewing gum” at the same time is not too much to ask.
Stadia have been a political hot potato in Auckland for the best part of a decade.
Covid-19 and the budget pressure it brings should not be grounds to prolong costly and energy-sapping action.