Rudman's city: Cheeky tilt at Edge empire

By BRIAN RUDMAN

The Edge chief executive, Greg Innes, has always seemed a bit like Alexander the Great. A man who will never rest until his empire stretches to the edge of the known world - and then some.

He started with the little kingdom of the Aotea Centre and then stealthily annexed first the Town Hall and subsequently the Civic Theatre. Enough territory to lord over, you might have thought, for any one person. But no.

Four years ago, when he rebranded his expanded empire "The Edge", he couldn't resist longingly lumping in his privately owned neighbours, Planet Hollywood and Village Cinemas, as also coming under the shelter of the Innes umbrella. And that was just the start. He told me at the time that the Auckland Art Gallery, the Public Library and Sky City Casino were all welcome to pay due allegiance as well.

It was an offer that failed to get a rise from his neighbours. Until now, anyway. Finally, last week, presumably with tongue firmly in cheek, the Sky City empire has struck back with a counter-bid. The casino operators have made an offer to Auckland City Council to take over the management of The Edge.

This offer comes as part of a battle to the death between Mr Innes and Sky City over which of their convention centre proposals is more worthy of city council support - and the eye-watering amounts of ratepayers' funds that would follow.

Just why ratepayers should be funding such a speculative business enterprise is beyond me. Where are the capitalist entrepreneurs when you need them?

But what concerns me more at the moment is the Sky City offer to take over the management of such vital community facilities as the Town Hall, the Civic Theatre and the Aotea Centre.

As successful and wily casino operators, you can be sure that altruism is not their guiding principle. Especially as these entertainment venues are far from profit centres - and unlikely to be profitable in the future, unless they are to be used for purposes as yet unthought of.

Perhaps, the way council meetings have been going lately, Sky City has spotted a money-making opportunity the rest of us have missed. Maybe they have secret plans to bring in a professional wrestling producer or two and market the stoushes as a cult, pay-TV game show.

Sky City might also have cast covetous eyes on the Civic Theatre wonderland. That's if the men from the casino have had the chance to get inside its almost permanently closed doors and see the potential. I've always thought the cute little decorative elephant trunks are crying out to be converted into poker machine handles. And the foyers and the Winter Garden would make voluptuously decadent gaming rooms.

But enough of such frivolity. What worries me is that in all the cargo cultist fever about convention centres and the riches they will bring us, we risk losing our grip on what the true purpose of The Edge complex is. These spaces were, after all, built as places of public entertainment. They are not primarily venue halls for a convention centre. I, for one, have fought too many battles to get the Aotea Centre built and the Town Hall and Civic Theatre restored as spaces for music and theatre, to have them dominated by conferences of proctologists from Idaho.

Another concern is the thought of one organisation controlling the major entertainment venues of downtown Auckland, which would be the case if Sky City's offer is taken up.

There was much angst within the arts community when Mr Innes' empire took over the management of the Town Hall and Civic Theatre. That venue hires went up at the renovated Town Hall was inevitable following the upgrade.

But the single-owner situation which resulted has left hirers frustrated at the take-it-or-leave-it pricing that now rules. Until now they have at least had the opportunity to cross the road and try out the competition at Sky City's theatre. If Sky City takes over The Edge management, that remaining price competition disappears.

More fundamentally, these spaces are cultural treasures every bit as much a part of our civic community as the public art gallery and library. Handing over management of them to a gambling chain seems as unthinkable as entrusting the library to the tender mercies of Mills and Boon management and the art gallery to a chocolate-box manufacturer.