Eden Park wants to double number of concerts at stadium each year

Thursday, 15 August 2024

Eden Park wants to have 12 concerts a year at the stadium, doubling the current number.

CEO Nick Sautner believes they have the support of locals, but they are seeking resource consent.

Local bar owner Rory Clarke, said more concerts would be great for his business.

Eden Park wants to double the number of concerts at the iconic stadium each year and is banking on public support to get this across the line.

The stadium’s trust was allowed to host six concerts a year from 2021, which has seen the likes of Six60, Pink, Ed Sheeran. Billy Joel and Guns N’ Roses perform at the venue.

The Eden Park Trust is now seeking resource consent to increase the number of concerts to 12 per year, but performed by at most six different artists.

There is a concert by US rapper Travis Scott and three from Coldplay this spring, which will use up Eden Park’s allotment for 2024 and its CEO Nick Sautner says there is demand for more major music events.

“Over the last five years, Eden Park has been on a journey to see greater utilisation and also diversification of content,” Sautner said.

“We’ve reached our quota this year of six, the feedback from our residents has been outstanding and we want to ensure the big acts continue to come to New Zealand and our national stadium.”

Sautner said concerts at Eden Park greatly boost the local economy, from those who have businesses nearby to people who work at the stadium.

“Concerts provide 3000 job opportunities on event days and the economic downstream effect for local businesses in the area,” he said.

“Hospitality has been challenged through Covid and then post Covid, people have been working from home.

“So we know that major events provide escapism, but also economic benefits. The residents are fully in support of this proposal and we encourage everyone to get online, let the music play and increase our cap from six to 12.”

When Eden Park was initially granted six concerts per year, former Prime Minister and local resident Helen Clark said at a planning hearing it would “represent a home invasion of noise.”

However, there was enough support for the concerts to go ahead, with the vast majority of locals supporting the proposal and Sautner said that’s the same to go up to 12 music events.

“Historically we’ve had over 97% support for concerts at Eden Park,” he said.

“Last week we had over 100 of our community engaged in a conversation around our proposal and the overwhelming support has been to enable Eden Park to be utilised.

“We’re a billion-dollar asset, we’re a community asset for Auckland and a strategic asset for New Zealand.

“It’s been under-utilised in the last period of time, particularly in this space and we know buyer habits have changed. People want to see Travis Scott, Coldplay, the All Blacks and Black Ferns. We’re able to showcase the biggest acts on our national stadium.”

Lillyanne Stowers, who lives close to Eden Park, says she doesn’t have a problem with a doubling of the number of concerts per year.

“I think it’s a great thing for our Eden Park community, it brings vibrancy and life when you hear there’s a concert on,” Stowers said

“Eden Park has done a good job at managing the concerts themselves. The only hassle sometimes is the traffic, getting back into the neighbourhood can be an issue.

“But if we know there’s a concert or big sporting event on, we’ve become accustomed to taking that into account and making sure we’re home in time and what routes to take.

Stowers was worried about there being lots of drunken people in the streets after concerts at Eden, but says this hasn’t been a problem.

“I thought that when the concerts were coming in, we were going to have a lot of rowdy, drunk concert goers flooding out of Eden Park, hooning around the neighbourhood, but we didn’t,” she said.

“The big sporting games have a bigger impact. So, I’m all for the concerts.”

One of New Zealand’s leading concert promoters Brent Eccles, who brought Ed Sheeran and Six60 to Eden Park says the stadium is a great place for live music and there are other international stars keen to play at the venue.

“ We had two or three years of discovering whether Eden Park was good for concerts, and a lot of these venues are built for rugby or cricket and built for sport, not for rock and roll,” Eccles said.

“What we discovered was that with a full house in here, like the Six60 The place has that X factor. It comes alive, and it's like a big cauldron.

“It's very attractive for promoters in that sense, it’s got that magic about it. So anything the venue can do to make it better through the resource consent is better for us.”

Concerts are also held at Western Springs, Mt Smart and North Harbour Stadium in Auckland and Eccles said while these venues are good, there’s something special about Eden Park.

“Eden Park is great for a seated concert, for your real A-grade artist, and you can do seated and standing,” he said.

“Western Springs has its own magic when it's a pretty much GA standing venue, that's a whole different idea, but that's incredible as well.

“Mount Smart definitely has its place in the world. North Harbour is a bit lost in all of this. It hasn't been used that often, but for a lesser capacity, around the 20,000 mark, that has its own place as well.

“What we're talking about here is the No 1, A-grade venue in New Zealand. That's what we want to have here.

“By giving us the chance to have more concerts, the venue can put in more facilities for us, it makes it better for us.”

Rory Clarke is the co-owner of St Leonards bar which is a five-minute walk away from Eden Park and he says if there were 12 concerts a year it would be massive for his bottom line.

“We’re a new bar, and a new brewery and we picked two industries that are really struggling at the moment and the two Pink concerts was the biggest weekend we’ve ever had.

“We had hundreds of mothers, daughters and families through that weekend, who were out to have a great time.

“Everyone was buzzing with it. We had pink streamers out, pink cocktails. Days like that give every business around here that surety that we’ll be able to make rent next month.

“Twelve concerts a year for us would mean I could sleep through the night knowing we’ll have enough money to pay our bills and staff next month.”

A key factor in Eden Park’s submission is the self-imposed limit of no more than six different artists a year, which makes it less likely there will be lots of one-off shows and disruption caused by moving equipment in and out.

“We’ve seen with the likes of Taylor Swift and other artists that they want to do multiple nights in major stadiums,” Sautner said.

“Eden Park is a venue of choice for promoters, so our ability to hold six artists with multiple nights is something that has great appeal to promoters globally.

“We’ve venues in Sydney an increase to 20 shows and in the last week, Tottenham (Hotspur Stadium) has seen an increase to 30 shows.

“The market size, whether it be Auckland at 1.7 million people, or Auckland at 5 million, we’re never going to see 30 concerts at Eden Park. We want to be able to successfully deliver 12 shows and that economic benefit for the city.”

Submissions close on September 2 and can be made here.