Empty seats and Covid-19 confront Auckland's new culture and economic agency

Monday, 14 December 2020

Auckland Zoo director Kevin Buley explains the elephants will be moved overseas after all options were exhausted to develop a herd at the zoo. (First published in November 2020)

Auckland’s troubled, and long-running, plan to change and revamp its stadiums is on hold while the council’s newly merged economic and culture and agency re-sets its priorities.

Auckland Unlimited will start 2021 drawing up a new game plan reflecting the grimmer financial reality of Covid-19 times, with lower revenue and a tighter budget from its parent, Auckland Council.

Planned work such as moving Speedway to a new facility in Manukau won’t advance in the meantime, a new halt for a strategy that has been bounced around since 2012.

“As soon as I am back on January 5 we start the process of getting clear what the priorities for Auckland Unlimited are,” the chief executive Nick Hill, told Stuff.

* Merged council agency named Auckland Unlimited

* ATEED chief Nick Hill to head merged Auckland Council agencies

Auckland Unlimited was created by the merger of council agencies ATEED and Regional Facilities Auckland (RFA), in line with the findings of an independent review of council-controlled organisations.

“The stadium strategy was RFA’s stadium strategy and the new board has yet to talk about it – it will have to do that fairly early on,” he said.

Queen’s Brian May and Adam Lambert performed at council-owned Mt Smart Stadium Auckland in July 2020.

“These are old tired facilities in some respects so sooner rather than later, we need to be clear about where the priorities lie.”

Hill said the pressing issue was how the agency would manage 2021, without international visitors who play a big part in patronising council-owned venues such as the Zoo.

“Any assumptions around international tourism numbers recovering in 2021 are extremely remote,” said Hill, who previously headed the tourism, event and economic agency ATEED.

Nearly 70 per cent of RFA’s 2020 income of $174 million, came from commercial activities such as hireage and patronage at stadia and theatres such as the Civic and Aotea Centre.

“You are really talking about how the economy recovers, and not finding ourselves in more restricted (Covid-19) levels dealing with social distancing, which has an impact on various facilities,” said Hill.

The official opening of the Toi Tū Toi Ora Contemporary Māori Art exhibition at Auckland Art Gallery, run by Auckland Unlimited.

Overseas visitors made up 25 per cent of paid admissions to Auckland Zoo.

The two parts of the new agency last year had a combined budget of $243 million, and Hill said working out a new structure for the merged entity is also top of the 2021 to-do list.

Decisions about future levels of staff will be part of the process.

Hill was upbeat about the benefits from blending an agency that oversaw economic development, tourism and events, with one that ran major council facilities such as the art gallery, theatres and stadia.

“When we go to council now, we can talk about the dollars spent on cultural facilities including stadia, as opposed to spending on roads,” he said.

“My observation is that RFA and ATEED were dealt with as an afterthought.”

Hill also signalled the economic development focus might shift from downtown facilities such as its GridAKL technology hubs, to focus more on the west and south.

The tech hub was started by ATEED to plug a gap in the market and try to help develop small high-tech businesses, but whether it still needed council assistance is the question.

“If we can’t add value then better we step out of that, and have more exposure where we can and where it is more important – and that’s south and west Auckland.”