By John Cousins
Tauranga's privately owned Blue Chip Stadium at Baypark is seeking a $3 million contribution from city ratepayers to help cover the cost of major extensions.
The request for an annual grant of $300,000 for the next 10 years was due to be considered by the council's evaluation committee today.
It
has been 18 months since the council rejected the last approach by Baypark owner Bob Clarkson for a $1.85 million contribution towards the cost of roofing Baypark's grandstands and building rugby changing rooms.
Since then, Mr Clarkson has gone on to oust Winston Peters and win election as Tauranga's MP.
In an unusual twist of circumstances today, while councillors deliberated on Baypark's funding request in one room of the Civic Building, Mr Clarkson was busy defending his election campaign budget before a special sitting of the High Court in the main council chamber next door.
The $300,000-a-year funding application is split into two components:
* $200,000 a year over 10 years to meet 80 per cent of the $3m cost of roofing the stadium.
* $100,000 a year over 10 years for Baypark to stage five big events in the stadium each year but not including speedway meetings and Bay of Plenty Rugby Football Union fixtures. Gate sales must exceed 3000 to qualify.
Today's meeting was only to consider whether to include the $3 million funding application in the council's 10-year financial plan.
A report to today's meeting by council strategic analyst Tracy Bignell said Baypark's 2004 application was criticised for not including information on the company's financial position.
Baypark Speedway Ltd has again refused to release the information, even confidentially, because it could put them at a "serious competitive disadvantage".
The report acknowledged the importance of the stadium as the base for the Bay of Plenty Steamers and said roofing 15,000 seats would make it more attractive to a wider range of users and provide greater certainty against the weather for promoters.
Baypark chief executive Sharon Jackman highlighted savings to the council from Mr Clarkson building the stadium out of his own pocket. Baypark was bringing events to Tauranga which would otherwise not have been possible.
When interviewed by the Bay of Plenty Times, Mr Clarkson said the extra $5m cost of roofing the grandstands, installing floodlights and building the changing rooms meant he would be lucky to break even.
His return on investment from the $15m spent up to that point was 3.5 to 4 per cent. This was below what he could have achieved from investing this money but Mr Clarkson said Baypark was fulfilment of a dream.
However, he said the prospect of only breaking even was "asking too much".
"This bucket has a bottom - there is a limit. When we look at the overall costs of running this place, it is getting a bit thin on the bottom line."
Mr Clarkson believed $300,000 a year represented "a bloody good deal" for ratepayers."
Mr Clarkson said all he was asking for was assistance with costs on a $20.5 million stadium. At the moment, speedway profits were supporting everything and that was not a good situation to be in.
"I don't mind it rolling along financially but if it reached the stage of losing money, I would have to make some serious decisions. Tauranga will be swilling with the excitement of the Rugby World Cup in six years and poor old Bob Clarkson would have gone broke." ."
* In tomorrow's Bay Times: full coverage of Winston Peters' bid to oust Clarkson as the city's MP and Tauranga City Council deliberations on Baypark.
