Christchurch urged to fight to host SailGP event
Thursday, 23 November 2023
Christchurch is being urged to fight hard to win back the SailGP yacht racing event for the city after organisers dropped Auckland as host of this summer’s event.
After a leg of the international catamaran circuit was raced at Lyttelton Harbour in March this year, the 2024 event was to have shifted to Auckland’s Waitemata Harbour for March 23 and 24.
In a statement on Tuesday, SailGP said it had pulled out of Auckland because the city could not guarantee availability of Wynyard Point as a waterfront spectator zone.
SailGP declined to comment further, except to confirm a yet-to-be-announced New Zealand venue for this summer’s event on the same dates.
The event needs to slot between late February racing in Sydney Harbour and early May racing in Bermuda, with a few weeks required between venues for transporting and setting up boats and onshore facilities.
“SailGP continues to work with its partners, including the relevant local and central government agencies, to progress planning for its season four New Zealand event, 23 and 24 March 2024,” the organisation said in a statement.
“We will share more information as soon as it is available.”
ChristchurchNZ, the city’s economic agency, is understood to be talking to SailGP organisers behind the scenes. It issued a firm “no comment” on Tuesday.
Tyrone Fields, Christchurch city councillor for Lyttelton, confirmed the possibility of the city hosting again this summer was “being explored”.
“If it does come back to Christchurch, that would be amazing, but it’s still early days,” he said.
“Nowhere is as good as Lyttelton Harbour for SailGP.”
The event sees mixed-gender crews from 10 nations - Britain, France, Spain, United States, New Zealand, Australia, Switzerland, Germany, Canada and Denmark - race high-speed foiling catamarans in 12 legs with an annual US$1 million prize. Other venues include St Tropez, San Francisco, New York and Dubai.
Central City Business Association chair Annabel Turley said the city’s authorities should work “very, very hard” to bring the racing back to Christchurch following this year’s successful event.
Turley said the event gave Christchurch a huge boost this year and drew large visitor numbers after the city had “missed out on things for a decade”.
“It put us on the map for international sport for something other than rugby - it created a big buzz. It really highlighted to the world that we are a world-class city.”
In addition to those who watched this year’s races from harbour-side vantage points, 9877 bought tickets to the official spectator zone, of whom 6748 were from outside the region and almost 1000 from overseas. There were also 200 ticketed boats in the water, and a global television and online audience of 136 million.
Data from economics consultancy Fresh Info revealed this year’s event generated almost 23,000 visitor nights and an estimated direct visitor spend of more than $4 million for Christchurch.
Leeann Watson, chief executive of the Canterbury Employers’ Chamber of Commerce, said this year’s event provided both a one-off financial boost in spending as well as valuable exposure.
“Things have been tough for businesses - this brought a lot of new people into the region.”
The event had revealed Christchurch as a destination, not just a gateway, she said.
“I think Christchurch will stand up well as a proposition, we’ve done it once and we have a roadmap on how to do it.”
Watson urged the “powers that make these decisions” to work hard to regain the racing for Christchurch.
Christchurch previously lost its chance to host a 2022 leg of SailGP after the Government controversially refused crews and support teams spots in managed isolation and quarantine (MIQ).
The event was regained, with hosting to be shared alternately between Auckland and Christchurch for four years, after both cities paid an incentive fee.
Christchurch agreed to pay SailGP $1 million in cash for each year it hosted the racing, plus another $500,000 spent on “in kind” contributions.