KEY POINTS:
Less than two minutes into the exhibition game, the Mt Smart Stadium
crowd was on its feet as David Beckham sent a blistering volley towards goal.
The crowd? Well, perhaps Auckland Regional Council chairman Mike Lee
and his bean-counters; maybe Auckland mayor John Banks in his corporate
box.
But Oceania goalkeeper Mark Bosnich was too quick. And Beckham's flair
was too late to save the balance books.
In truth, for the organisers, the game was lost before it began.
A Herald on Sunday investigation reveals the exhibition match never had a chance of returning a dividend to the ratepayer: its chances of success were destroyed by a complete lack of council oversight,
football-mad officials who were "mesmerised" by Beckham's glittering star status, a plunging New Zealand dollar, over-priced tickets and the failure to sign up big-name opponents to face the LA Galaxy.
On the night, the attendance was sad and embarrassing. The entire
East Stand was virtually empty - and that was the one the cameras pointed towards. There was no atmosphere. The only time the crowd got excited was when Beckham went to take corners, and people rushed forward from their seats to take photos.
The contract required that "Goldenballs" play 60 minutes. He played 80
before coming off with an ankle injury - but already, some of the audience had taken advantage of the half-time break to leave.
Afterwards, Beckham spoke of the passion of Auckland's football fans. It
was a line he's probably trumpeted before in his countless press conferences around the world, and it sounded unconvincing.
It was hard to look past the fact that only 16,600 people ventured to Mt Smart last weekend to watch him and his LA Galaxy take on the dubiously-named Oceania All Stars.
For someone more used to the 80,000 who turned out to watch him play in
Sydney last year, or even the 31,853 who flocked to the Cake Tin for the LA Galaxy's match against the Wellington Phoenix (a record for a ootball match in New Zealand) it must have been a blow to his ego.
After all, this was the man who has had a movie named after him, twice been the most searched sportsman on Google, who was one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people in the world in 2008, and last
year named Britain's "Greatest Ambassador".
Auckland is known as the City of Sails. Last week, it was the City of the half-price, everything-must-go Sale.
In the final days, organisers offered two $85 tickets for the price of one - and still they could not come close to filling the stadium.
The ARC has been left to pick up the tab and it's not an insignificant one. Lee and his councillors punted US$1.2 million ($2.2m) just to bring Beckham and Co to Auckland and, although the final figures are not yet public, the venture is thought to have lost up to half a million dollars.
Says Lee: "It's like a plane crash."
The Oceania Football Confederation's offer of a token contribution is
unlikely to help much. Now, the Auditor-General is being asked to help review what went wrong. And Rodney Hide, the new Local Government Minister, told the Herald on Sunday that the ARC was "particularly
negligent".
"It seems to be one of those projects that no one has any control over," he added. "My view, coming into the job, is that councils have been taking a cavalier attitude to ratepayers' money and to commercial
risk."
The timing of the match, the credit crunch, Beckham fatigue, the quality of the opposition and ticket prices all militated against the event's success.
Now, Lee admits that some warning lights were flashing in April, even
before the contract was signed. He had "serious reservations" about
whether the Oceania team was the right opposition, but local teams like the Kingz and the Knights had failed, while the more successful Phoenix was too closely associated with Wellington.
The ticket price was too high, he says, and the match clashed with two major concerts, Alicia Keys that night and Kylie Minogue two nights later, as well as innumerable Christmas parties.
"But there were no alarm signals until the plane was about to hit the
mountain," he says.
"We didn't have the radar switched on properly; we were getting false
readings."
Once the contract was signed, an ARC source says, council leaders were
distracted from seeking proper briefings on ticket sales and other
arrangements. A couple of the key officials were "mad soccer fans ... mesmerised by Beckham." And the deal was structured in a way that provided no room for error.
Lee acknowledges as much. "I've taken the blame for it, as I should, but there were a number of mistakes made by a number of people. We're asking some very hard questions about that."
He says there was a problem within the council getting timely information about ticket sales and what else was going on. Organisers failed in attempts to woo additional stars with pulling power, like former France captain Zinedine Zidane.
In addition, one of the corporate hospitality companies went into
liquidation. In October, promoters cancelled another exhibition match in
Brisbane, scheduled for December 11, saying the Galaxy could not guarantee Beckham's availability.
Even foreign exchange rates conspired against the event's success. The ARC would have had to pay a deposit when the game was agreed, an instalment in the lead-up to the match and a final payment - all in
American dollars.
The New Zealand dollar was worth US79c in April when the concept was first mooted, 67c in September when the game was confirmed and had
plummeted to 53c by the time of the game. By anyone's maths, that's a
massive and costly difference.
The ARC never discussed any of this.
"We made the decision to go with this in April," says Lee. "That was the last time we had any formal discussion about it. It should not have happened."
"We were blindsided. I certainly asked for information. Increasingly
so, as time advanced."
He refuses to give more details, with an inquiry pending, but hints that he was misled.
"A sixth sense clicked in over recent weeks, but we weren't told how serious things were until a few days before, to be honest."
While some ratepayers are outraged by the deficit, saying their money should not be spent on such frivolous exercises, others have pointed out that it's small change compared to the $50 million Auckland City Council will contribute to the 2011 Rugby World Cup and the $10 million ARC is contributing.
It would be remiss to ignore the upside of Galaxy's visit. Graeme Osborne, chief executive of Tourism Auckland, points to articles, photos and TV clips in media all over the world, including target tourism markets like Britain, the United States, Canada and India.
"One team member's photos have appeared on his profile page on social
networking site Facebook of what he got up to while he was in Auckland," Osborne says.
"Some of the pictures show him and a few of his teammates eating ice cream at Movenpick in Mission Bay, on the beach at Mission Bay with Rangitoto in the background, outside the museum and on top of Mt Eden.
"Beckham has mentioned that he enjoyed himself in New Zealand so much that he would like to bring Victoria and the kids back at some point."
Mike Lee says that publicity coincided with "sublime weather",
presenting a shining image of Auckland to the world.
"No doubt at all, that will add economic value to the city from having him here."
And it is retailers and hoteliers who will benefit from that, not the ARC, he says. About 11,000 children attended a coaching session, and hundreds of thousands of dollars were raised for KidsCan and John Walker's Field of Dreams charity.
"David Beckham did everything that was required of him - a dream
guy to have. But he needed the rest of the support system, and that wasn't up to his level."
Sequels are rarely better than the original when it comes to movies and
novels. In much the same way, Auckland was never going to be able to replicate what Wellington achieved 12 months earlier.
Genuine Beckham-mania gripped the capital, and much of the country, and there was a widespread fascination in someone who had previously only been seen on television or in the gossip mags.
Wellington Phoenix owner Terry Serepisos watched Auckland's follow-up attempt in astonishment.
"I told them that I didn't think it would work," Serepisos says.
"And it sounds like it's been a costly mistake.
"When we brought Beckham out it was a novelty, and they were playing a
New Zealand team. Yes, the Phoenix play in Wellington but I have always
said they are New Zealand's team. People could identify with us. But
apart from David Beckham, people didn't know who they were watching.
It didn't make sense."
Wellington also had the benefit of having a core fanbase of at least 5000 Yellow Fever supporters, on top of the capital's reputation for embracing local events. Other fans travelled from throughout the country to watch the match, assuming it would be the only time they would see Beckham in the flesh.
"We were looking at bringing Beckham and the LA Galaxy out again next year to play a return match but for whatever reason the ARC jumped on it this year," Serepisos adds.
"We started something special and I wanted them to carry it on but it's probably tarnished it a little bit. Their idea might have been a good one, but they executed it poorly."