Missing out on the big-time

Tauranga officially became a city last year when it hit the magic 100,000 population mark, making it the fifth largest city in New Zealand outside the Auckland area. But when it comes to hosting major sporting and cultural events, we are losing out to smaller centres. Julia Holmes looks at why, and asks what is being done to put Tauranga on the events map.
Auckland has the Aotea Centre, Wellington has the Michael Fowler Centre - and Tauranga has an aircraft hangar and a kiwifruit cool store.
Organisers of glittering business events and major trade shows in the Western Bay are forced to use more than a little Kiwi ingenuity when it comes to staging large events.
And if the events are too big, they just go elsewhere, leaching millions of dollars of potential revenue away from the area.
Yesterday the Bay of Plenty Times revealed that a major three-day craft show which attracts 5000 people, has pulled out of the city and will now be held in Hastings because because there is nowhere here suitable to hold it.
This comes just two weeks after the Magic Netball team was forced to play what should have been a home final on opposition turf in Invercargill because Netball New Zealand deemed the chosen venue, the Queen Elizabeth Youth Centre, too small. I n the absence of suitable venues, events organisers often have to come up with makeshift solutions.
This month aeroplanes were rolled aside at the new aviation museum hangar to make way for the 400-plus people who attended the regional Exporter of the Year awards.
"We wanted to do something new and different," says Joanne Buxton, executive officer for Export New Zealand Bay of Plenty, explaining that the event has been held at the Baypark conference centre for the past nine years.
Baypark or a "marquee in the middle of a paddock" are the only suitable choices for events for over 300 people, adds Mrs Buxton, who has also been involved with the Tauranga Business Awards for two years.
"We have events that could take 800 people; charity events, business awards ... but we have to limit seats."
And while the aviation museum is a quirky venue, it is not purpose built for dining and dancing, with a stage, toilets, lighting, sound system and caterers having to be brought in to transform the 60m x 30m hangar.
Nor is it ideal for the museum which had to close for two days, leaving some of its historic planes outside, exposed to the elements.
Hosting a large event in Tauranga can cost up to three times more than it would elsewhere because of all the additional equipment and staff required to turn around a make-shift venue, Mrs Buxton says.
The export awards cost around $70,000 to stage, the budget relying heavily on sponsorship.
Mrs Buxton is leading a delegation of business people who are meeting with Tauranga Mayor Stuart Crosby to discuss the issue on Wednesday.
"We want to see what vision the city has for event centres now we've come of age."
The meeting was called after developer Bob Clarkson announced last week that he had shelved plans to build a 8000 sq m exhibition centre at Baypark Stadium.
Mr Clarkson says he put the $6m development - proposed for the western side of the pits area behind the speedway track and rugby field at Te Maunga - on hold because of his ongoing frustration over consent issues.
The council, which owns the land at Te Maunga, has allocated $275,000 a year towards the cost of running the exhibition centre. The 10-year deal would enable community groups to use the centre for 26 weekends of the year at a discounted rate, as long as they booked 10 months in advance.
Graeme Martin, of Bay Events Ltd, will also be looking for answers at next week's meeting with Mr Crosby.
Mr Martin had four events booked into the new Baypark exhibition centre, two of which will no longer go ahead if the development is shelved.
A motor show and mid-winter wine and food festival that he was developing for 2006 look set to be canned because there is no alternative venue big enough to host them.
The Boat Show will return to its venue of seven years, Satara's 5000 sq m kiwifruit cool store in Totara St, but he has not sured up a venue yet for his flagship Home Show.
"Where do we go? We don't really have a great deal of choice," says Mr Martin.
"The Home Show is our main event. I was really hoping in 2006 I was going to be able to offer sponsors, exhibitors and visitors an up-to-date, purpose-built facility."
A large exhibition centre would "change the landscape" of Tauranga and the upper North Island, he adds. "We've got to look for partnerships ... and manage them effectively so the city can create the amenities it needs."
As it stands, Western Bay has a mish-mash of largely single-function facilities. In terms of large theatre-style venues, we have Baycourt, which also has exhibition halls for functions up to 350 people, Holy Trinity Church and Capitol Theatre in Te Puke. However, these are only suitable for events where tiered seating is appropriate.
The Mount Action Centre, Mount Sports Centre and Queen Elizabeth Youth Centre, are the main venues for indoor sports. Council policy deems they can only be used for sport and nothing else.
That leaves the existing events centre at Baypark, which can accommodate 650 people, and Tauranga Racecourse, which has two function rooms able to seat 500 people, as the only options for big events.
The racecourse is however, often overlooked because it is perceived as being tired and outdated.
Tourism Bay of Plenty chief executive Jim Little says Tauranga needs three things - an events stadium, a conference centre in the middle of town and hotels with conference and meeting facilities, such as the $30m Trinity Wharf Hotel being built in Dive Crescent and the $20m Novotel Hotel to be developed opposite Baycourt.
"Those are the sorts of things we need. Financially we are missing out."
Formerly the general manager of Tourism Lake Taupo - where there are three venues capable of hosting 700 to 1000 people - Mr Little says the Western Bay could, like Taupo, be attracting larger conferences and sporting events if it had somewhere to put them.
Echoing his view, Tauranga Chamber of Commerce chief executive Craig Garner, says Tauranga is "a joke" when it comes to the events industry.
"We are missing out on millions of dollars without a doubt."
He says tourists spend an average of $100 a day, while conference delegates were known to spend as much as $400 a day.
"The flow-on for us as a region is enormous ... not just in terms of caterers, venues, equipment hire, but to retail shops and tourist operators."
A 'Conference Tauranga' initiative has been successful in attracting smaller events to the city but has been hampered by a lack of larger facilities.
It is not uncommon for Tauranga to lose large business conferences to places such as Rotorua and Hamilton, says Mr Garner.
"I wish someone would drop a big wad of money and a block of land."
Tauranga City Council's Christine Jones, group manager city directions, says council needs to weigh up what is most important - to provide facilities of a national standard or to cater primarily for local people.
The council's Sport and Active Living Strategy, a draft of which will come out in March next year for public consultation, will look at sporting facilities needed in Tauranga over the next 10 years.
"It will look at what we're going to need and what form that may take. It will also look at the existing network and how it fits together," Mrs Jones says.
Likely to be discussed are the pros and cons of have two smaller facilities - say, one in Tauranga and one at Mount Maunganui - as opposed to one large facility.
The project team will be researching and costing various options over the next month.
With regards to exhibition space, a long-term plan has been mooted to extend Baycourt's flat floor space, although no time-line has been set for this.
Discussions regarding Baypark are ongoing, says Mrs Jones.
"These are all things the council needs to look at over the next four to five months."
"We are trying to identify all the options and work through them. We will look at exhibition space as part of the total planning process. It has been identified as one of the things that needs to be considered."