Taylor Swift will soon have fewer excuses to skip New Zealand on her next tour.
The number of concerts allowed each year at Auckland’s Eden Park stadium will almost triple under new rules to be announced today by the Government.
Under the new settings, the stadium will be allowed to host up to 12 large and 20 medium-sized concerts a year – without the need for resource consent.
Eden Park CEO Nick Sautner told Newstalk ZB that estimates from the University of Auckland show an annual economic benefit of $100 million.
Meanwhile, New Zealand will host its first State of Origin match next year at Eden Park.
It’s thought it will attract more than 10,000 of our Aussie neighbours, generate more than 50,000 international visitor nights, and inject an estimated $17.4m into the economy.
The only time State of Origin was previously played outside Australia was in 1987 at Long Beach, California.
Sir Graham Lowe coached Queensland in 1991-92, winning the first series and losing the second, both 2-1. He is the only coach from outside Queensland or NSW in State of Origin history.
He told The Front Page that history will judge the move very favourably.
“State of Origin, the concept, is really one of the most successful brands in the sporting world. It’s got proven success since 1980. It attracts an audience that is now global in many ways.
“If you’ve been fortunate enough to go along to an Origin game over in Australia, you would’ve experienced the excitement,” he said.
Lowe said bringing it to “a rugby union country” like New Zealand is something special.
“As a coach of Queensland back in 1991-92, what I experienced in those times I can’t really put into words, because it’s just galvanised into my soul. How excited, how privileged I felt as a Kiwi to be invited into that cauldron.
“Even now, I’m 80 years old this year, I feel like it was yesterday. The worrying thing is I think I could still go out and do it!” he said.
In 2019, the Auckland Council bailed out Eden Park to the tune of $63m, nearly $10m of which was a new, no-strings grant.
The mayor at the time, Phil Goff, was outvoted in the meeting and immediately condemned the decision.
“You can basically guarantee that Eden Park will be back for more, because why wouldn’t they? That’s free money we’ve just given them,” he said.
Today, Goff told The Front Page he hoped the move for extra events would make the Eden Park Trust money so “maybe they can start repaying the debt that they owe the Auckland Council.”
“So, from a ratepayer point of view, I think it’s also a positive.”
But, he thinks the council should’ve acted sooner.
“This decision, the fact that it’s been taken by the central Government rather than the Auckland Council itself, is a bit of a reflection on the controlling element.
“Council could’ve moved on it. But to have the Government intervene on something as small as how often you could have concerts at a local stadium, seems to me, overreach by central government,” he said.
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The Front Page is a daily news podcast from the New Zealand Herald, available to listen to every weekday from 5am. The podcast is presented by Chelsea Daniels, an Auckland-based journalist with a background in world news and crime/justice reporting who joined NZME in 2016.
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