Claudelands to get same performance audit as V8s

The Breakers' booking was among the 168 for the year. Photo / Christine Cornege

The struggling Claudelands Events Centre is next to go under the microscope for its poor performance, following a damning audit of the V8 Supercars.

The $68.4 million centre has come up short on its booking targets and is set to make an operating deficit of $1.7 million in its first year.

The facility is now banking on just 168 bookings for the venue for the 2011-12 year - compared with its original target of 315.

It is now among five council projects that are on the city's "need to be monitored" list.

Hamilton City Council chief executive Barry Harris said the "same lens" used during an audit of the V8 Supercars would be used in the review.

That audit blamed senior council management for poor reporting, a lack of transparency and the unauthorised spending of millions of dollars.

"I believe the business model for Claudelands is going to need a comprehensive review as much due to the changes in economic climate as anything else but we will be putting the same lens over Claudelands and other major projects and take the learnings out of this [V8 audit] particular exercise," Mr Harris said.

Councillor Gordon Chesterman said he was shocked by the centre's first-year figures but said they were not a real surprise given the sluggish economy.

He privately commissioned research on the centre's financial viability two years ago - before the council gave its go-ahead for construction - because he feared the impact of the global economic recession.

He tried at a council meeting to either cancel or postpone the development, but lost, 11 votes to 2.

The same council approved the business plan for the V8 Supercars.

"Between the time when we got the first business case on which all the planning was done and the decision made and this year the market has soured," he said. "But it will come back and the centre is a superb facility, there's no question about that."

Another councillor, Ewan Wilson, said the centre was "a massive undertaking for council" which had to borrow the entire $68 million cost.

"The city definitely needed a conference centre and what we got satisfied that requirement ... Where we missed the mark was what the community wanted was a day-to-day facility that a wide [range] of community organisations can use."

The council is planning a ramped-up marketing campaign in an attempt to reduce the forecast operating deficit from $1.7 million to $1.1 million.