KEY POINTS:
Where would the bureaucrats be without their special committees? The instant replays of the latest World Cup debacle were still being analysed in bars and living rooms across the country when Rugby World Cup Minister Trevor Mallard was announcing his advisers' latest brainwave. A task force.
Given the
amount of Government money which went down the drain trying to win this year's cup, one might have hoped for a committee of crusty old All Blacks dedicated to offing a few heads and creating a battle plan for 2011 that might actually bring victory for a change.
But instead, it was silver-lining time. Instead of a war plan, Mr Mallard was "pleased to announce that we will be launching a Rugby World Cup 2011 leveraging and legacy project in the next couple of months - aimed at ensuring that this tournament delivers lasting and tangible economic, environmental and social benefits to New Zealand."
Let's drop the pretence about environmental and social benefits. Apart from the initial mention, the statement was all about economic benefit. The tournament would bring "significant economic upsides", estimated to be worth $500 million, half this going straight into the Auckland economy.
As a result, "we want business to get involved, engaged and thinking seriously about the benefits they can secure out of this very major event. This tournament presents an opportunity that New Zealand has never seen before."
With this in mind, the new legacy project "will be championed by a soon-to-be-appointed high-profile business person".
Having read Weekend Herald business columnist Brian Gaynor's scathing attack on the New Zealand Rugby Union's disastrous campaign for glory, one which not only failed to win the cup but also diluted interest and attendances at Super 14 and Air NZ Cup games, one must hope this champion for all seasons is someone from outside the rugby tent.
All power to the organisers if they do find a superman with the charisma to attract business to the opportunities of the World Cup, but I can't help thinking that what this project needs is a larger-than-life figurehead who will bring not just the business community on board, but the wider community as well.
I'm afraid NZRU president Andy Leslie and Rugby New Zealand 2011 chairman Jock Hobbs are hardly the Pied Pipers needed. Nor, for that matter, is RNZ 2011 chief executive Martin Snedden.
It must have been dispiriting for Mr Mallard that his statement coincided with North Shore Mayor Andrew Williams siding with Auckland Mayor John Banks in refusing to put his ratepayers' money into the Eden Park upgrade.
But Wellington has only itself to blame for the negativity which continues to leach out of the host city. From the beginning, Auckland has been presented with a series of Wellington dreamed-up fait accomplis, and told to accept them or suffer the consequences. No wonder the response has been frosty.
Background notes released with Mr Mallard's statement say "local government co-ordinated working groups have been established in regions throughout New Zealand aimed at maximising the potential benefits from hosting the RWC. Rugby New Zealand 2011 [the joint NZRU and Government company 'responsible for the successful delivery of the tournament'] has been running a series of workshops aimed at engaging the regions and keeping them informed on tournament planning."
This sounds like a great idea. But if the Auckland stadium fiasco is representative of the claimed attempts to engage the regions, it's been a failure.
If Mr Mallard and the rugby union want Aucklanders to embrace the greater 2011 crusade, their priority must be to cauterise the running sore that is the Eden Park upgrade. It's no good Wellington waxing lyrical to us about $500 million of economic benefit flowing into the country, to say nothing of unquantified environmental and social benefits, while at the same time, standing over us and twisting our arm for an unspecified portion of the $190 million upgrade costs.
The Mallard announcement dwells on it being New Zealand that will be "in the international spotlight" in 2011. At the risk of sounding like the proverbial cracked record, that being the case, it's New Zealand that should be doing the hosting, not just Auckland. The sooner Wellington digs into its pocket, the sooner we can all move on and begin planning the grand tournament which, according to the minister, "presents an opportunity New Zealand has never seen before".
