Monday 13 November 2006

One billion dollars. Sixty-thousand seats. Bargain?

One billion dollars. Where businesses might take one billion dollars and transform that into one-and-a-half, two or three billion dollars, governments are past masters at taking one billion dollars and turning it into something much less.

The current plan is to take one billion dollars of your money -- and let's not fool ourselves that any fast-tracked stadium anywhere near the Auckland waterfront would cost anything less, or that any bed, airport or tourist tax wouldn't end up costing something of each of us (not least in what these get-off-the-plane taxes might cost the tourist industry in lost tourists) -- one billion dollars of your hard-earned money -- around one-thousand dollars per taxpayer -- and transform it into Stadium White Elephant.

One billion dollars. One-thousand dollars per taxpayer. Sixty-thousand seats. One World Cup tournament. Is that a bargain or what?

Stack that against Christchurch's Jade Stadium which says it can achieve sixty-thousand seats at a reported cost of just eighty-million dollars, and the decision to go for grandomania in Auckland rather than simple good sense in Christchurch looks like what it is. Stupid. At that price the rugby union, the TV companies and local businesses who stand to gain from the Rugby World Cup -- in other words, those who see themselves as picking up some of the projected five-hundred million dollars of economic benefits from the Cup -- could finance it themselves, without putting their hand in our pockets at all. Sounds good, huh?

Is provincialism that important to you? Is hosting the Rugby World Cup in Auckland really worth one billion dollars to you?

RELATED: Stadium, Politics-NZ, Auckland, Sports

4 comments:

bruddah said...

That works out to $16 666 per seat. Should pay for itself in a century or 2.

Perhaps the property industry is keen to get a shot in the arm what with the "flattening" of the Auckland property market to 6% annual growth.

Looks like a case of poorly disguised greed coupled with grandiose egos in Wellington.

Good old muggins New Zealand taxpayers are footing the bill for our betters to hobnob and strut about on the world stage.

I don't know why Labour considers themselves egalitarian with their penchant for wealth transfer from the people to the State. Oh yeah, that's what socialism is all about.

Blair said...

Why not have the final in Christchurch? They actually care about rugby down there.

Anonymous said...

With four new hotels being built now (and more if they get the world cup) adding 800 beds to the city, Christchurch could handle the massive tourists. Especially since they have less normal traffic, so their roads could better handle it than Auckland's. Especially since extra buses and trains will run at the time of the world cup.

Oh, and PC, the mayor of Christchurch claimed 55,000 on the news last night, not 60,000. He also said that the debate between authorities isn't an issue as their is only one authority. And since they want it there resource consent also wouldn't be an issue as they are bound to approve of something they desire in such a way.

Paul said...

Why don't we build a stadium on a ship? Then we can rent it to other countries that wants to host the Rugby World Cup or any other event. Stadium New Zealand could be the world's first floating major venue, travelling the high sees, promoting New Zealand wherever it goes.

I am sure it could not cost any more than the current proposal.