Source: Radio New Zealand
Metallica playing at Auckland’s Eden Park last week. (File photo) Tom Grut
A local community board has voted against having more concerts at Auckland’s Eden Park, angering a local business association.
The government wants to boost the number of gigs allowed at the venue to 12 large and 20 medium concerts a year. At the moment it was limited to six artists playing a total of 12 gigs a year.
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop wrote to Auckland Council with an eye on loosening restrictions on Eden Park’s operations which he said were costing hundreds of millions of dollars in lost revenue.
The government was now seeking feedback from the public and council on the findings.
The Albert-Eden local board has voted no to supporting that plan, which infuriated the Dominion Rd Business Association.
The association’s manager Gary Holmes told Checkpoint the decision was “economic vandalism” in his eyes.
“We’ve got business on Dominion Rd fighting to survive a rescission and here we’ve got a local board turning away $250,000 of economic stimulus for our area alone per event and they’re ignoring their own voters.
“We know over 70 percent of locals support more concerts. It’s not just out of touch with businesses but out of touch with reality.”
Holmes said the association had market view data that had shown the impact of spending over time.
“For example, when Coldplay played last year our dining revenue jumped by 25 percent.
“Because we’re competing with Sydney and Melbourne it’s crazy to turn away that kind of money due to restrictions on Eden Park.”
Holmes said the local board needed to listen to residents who wanted a “vibrant city”.
“We want to be a destination.”
Eden Park’s CEO Nick Sautner told Morning Report on Thursday morning, the national stadium was being “hampered by a bureaucracy of restrictions”.
“If I was the CEO of a toll road or a shopping centre and had 90 percent idle capacity people would be asking questions. My idle capacity is a result of our constraints and so, Chris Bishop’s initiative to implement these changes enables business to do business.”
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand