Brian Rudman: Make Vector Arena 'party central'

Sometimes you have to wonder what the Bellamy's staff are slipping into the Cabinet tea urn. The $50 million North Cape-to-Bluff cycleway was weird enough.

As is stacking excess prisoners into shipping containers. Now comes the zany open invitation from Prime Minister John Key to rugby fans to come to a six-week-long rave party on a desolate Auckland wharf in the late winter of 2011.

My initial reaction was fear that spending $84 million or more, tarting the place up to provide a temporary venue for World Cup "party central", risked the long-term development future of this treasured central city site.

But pushing that fear to one side is the growing feeling that the idea in itself is, to borrow the words of my colleague, Fran O'Sullivan, barking mad.

Instead of wasting the $84 million Auckland City councillors now want to spend on the temporary transformation of Queens Wharf, he suggested blocking off adjacent Quay St and turning that into an impromptu venue.

My solution would be even simpler. Just two years ago, the 12,000-seater Vector Arena opened, overlooking both Quay St and Queens Wharf.

Auckland ratepayers contributed around $70 million to this $80 million private-public partnership. The arena has 18 full-time staff, with 250 casuals it can call on and all the facilities needed for such an event. These include vast kitchens and bars and, crucial for rugby fans, miles of urinals. It also has a roof and heating.

Earlier in the week, Auckland City took the media on a tour of the wharf. As early winter days go, they picked a pearler. It was midday and the sun glowed down from a cloudless sky.

Nevertheless, even on such a perfect day, as we entered the shadow of one of the long cargo sheds, a collective shiver ran through the crowd.

Chances are the weather won't be nearly so clement in the six weeks between the opening of the cup festival on September 9, 2011 and the final on October 23.

The National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research records show this is not a good time to be partying outside in Auckland. In the 30 years to 2000, it rained on average, 14 days in September and 12 in October.

The minium daily air temperatures were a bracing 8.9C in September and 10.5C in October. The monthly mean temperatures were 12.6C and 14.1C respectively. I couldn't find Niwa wind records but another source noted September to December as Auckland's windiest period.

In other words, it's likely to be brass monkey weather down on Queens Wharf for Mr Key's party. Vector arena, on the other hand, has a roof, and heating.

Apart from the folly of wasting public money on a temporary facility to cater for Mr Key's predicted 10,000 to 15,000 fans, when a permanent facility capable of seating around that number sits empty just across the road, there's also a real concern about public safety.

A showbusiness veteran who has checked out the Queens Wharf proposal tells me he's flabbergasted, both on economic and safety grounds. Like Princes Wharf before it was strengthened to hold the Hilton Hotel, Queens Wharf is a seismic disaster zone waiting for an earthquake.

That's why Auckland City proposes spending $18 million strengthening it. But why would we put rugby fans to this risk. As for the old sheds, they're even shakier and will also need expensive quake-proofing.

Ensuring this proposed venue doesn't collapse into the Waitemata is not the only "responsible host" obligation facing the proponents. The symbiotic relationship between rugby and booze means steps will be needed to ensure a lack of spillage of fans off the sides of the wharf.

It's ironic that in declaring their intention to knock down the iron railings separating the wharf from downtown Auckland, councillors have automatically obligated themselves to the erection of railings around the whole outer perimeter of the wharf.

Given the proposed size of the crowds, simple water-filled plastic barricades are hardly likely to suffice. Not unless the city bureaucrats waive their own strict crowd protection rules.

Need I go on? We built the Vector Arena for just such one-off events. It will provide a vastly more user-friendly experience for much less money. What am I missing?