Eden Park plan triggers bailout fears

Eden Park. Photo / AP.

Shared-ownership model for parks stirs misgivings as ratepayers prepare to cope with big rates increases.

Cash-strapped Eden Park, weighed down by a debt of $55 million, could become the financial responsibility of Auckland Council just as many ratepayers face big rates increases.

The council is looking at a "shared ownership and management model" of the city's three main stadiums, which councillor Cathy Casey and the Eden Park Neighbours' Association believe will lead to ratepayers bailing out Eden Park. Under a discussion paper released yesterday on the future of Eden Park, Mt Smart Stadium and North Harbour Stadium, it is Eden Park that gets the top billing with all the big rugby, league, limited-overs cricket and soccer matches.

Down the pecking order is the council-owned Mt Smart Stadium, which has a $15.6 million budget over the next 10 years to entice the Warriors to stick around. The budget must also stretch to high-performance training facilities, a new athletics track and making it more attractive to host big events such as Pasifika and Christmas in the Park.

The Warriors would continue to be based at Mt Smart and play some games there, but games likely to attract 20,000 or more spectators would be played at Eden Park.

There are plans for an international cricket oval outside the main North Harbour Stadium.

Robert Domm, the chief executive of council body Regional Facilities Auckland, said the plan aimed to make better use of under-used and financially stretched stadiums.

He acknowledged parts of the plan were controversial but said change was needed to develop a strong stadium sector after the Rugby World Cup. "We have to have this debate."

Auckland Cricket chief Mark Cameron said it would be hard to justify a new venue solely for test cricket.

Warriors chief executive Wayne Scurrah said the club had not received a copy of the report or a briefing from Regional Facilities.

Last night, Mayor Len Brown would not rule out ratepayers getting into bed with Eden Park or even owning the park one day.

Nor would he rule out writing off all or part of ratepayers' $46.5 million exposure to the park.

Sports Minister Murray McCully - the Government appoints five of the nine Eden Park trustees - would not rule out changes to the current set-up.

Dr Casey said she was very concerned at the possibility of ratepayers bailing out Eden Park after it was upgraded at a cost of $256 million for the Rugby World Cup.

Of the $55 million of debt hanging over the park, Auckland ratepayers underwrote the final $40 million of the upgrade and are owed $6.5 million from a loan for construction of the North Stand.

Neighbours' association president Mark Donnelly said ratepayers - who paid most of the $41 million cost of North Harbour Stadium and owned Mt Smart - could end up also carrying the risk for Eden Park, owned by the Eden Park Trust Board.

Leading Auckland business figures and Eden Park guardians have a history of making big promises about the ground's financial viability. During the waterfront debate in 2006, lawyer Rob Fisher said a $320 million park upgrade would not need any ongoing support from public coffers.

In 2010, trust board chairman John Waller forecast comfortable profits after the Rugby World Cup.

Eden Park chief executive David Kennedy said the park was meeting its loan repayments, but had not paid back any capital on the $40 million upgrade loan.

Tens of thousands of Auckland ratepayers face double-digit rates increases for one or more years as the result of a new single rating system.