OPINION:
Now that the America's Cup is off to Barcelona, the Government has a pile of cash burning a hole in its pocket and an opportunity to re-think how it can use elite sport as a brand ambassador for New Zealand.
The decision by Team New Zealand to reject the $99m ($31m in cash, the rest in kind) offer to host the America's Cup in Auckland has paved the way for a fundamental reset on not only what sort of events public funding is thrown at, but also who should be used to promote New Zealand to a global audience and what kind of image the country wants to project to the rest of the world.
For the Government to get its chequebook out and underwrite major events the consideration as to whether it's a sound investment has to go beyond the likely financial return.
These days the real value in hosting events is not in the dollars they pump into the local economy, but the impact they have on a country's brand value. Perception is indeed everything.
Big sporting events have become geo-political amphitheatres – opportunities to sell a particular version of a country's identity to a mass audience.
China has used the Olympics to try to present itself as a dynamic, technological haven where the entrepreneurial spirit can flourish, while Vladimir Putin used the 2018 Football World Cup to present a softer, outward-facing Russia.
South Africa used the 1995 Rugby World Cup to show the world it had forgiven and at least partly healed and collectively had bought into a new future as the Rainbow Nation.
Be they cynical vehicles to hide a multitude of human rights abuses, create a misleading sense of global connection, or project a genuine portrayal of the qualities and values that a country feels best defines it, these high-profile events are incredible PR opportunities.
Investment in Team New Zealand would clearly have been in the latter category – a legitimate and strong promotion of the innovative, technological excellence the country believes it possesses.
The team is built on a value system of hard work, resilience and perseverance, best personified by Grant Dalton, whose clarity of vision, belligerence and will to succeed are universally admired.
There is no doubt Team New Zealand have a marketable narrative, but the harder question is whether it is the right one for the public purse to promote.
Team New Zealand is exclusively male and predominantly European Kiwi. The diversity which defines modern New Zealand is not represented by the crew and while Dalton's doggedness embodies the pioneering spirit on which the country was built, he's a rich white guy battling to give mega-rich white guys a few weeks of entertainment.
It has always felt like the Government is taking from the poor to give to the rich by supporting the America's Cup and trying to sell itself to the world as an adventure playground for billionaires.
The justification to use public funds to support the America's Cup has long been based on the economic returns, with the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment forecasting (pre-Covid) that the 2020 event would inject between $600m to $1billion into the national economy.
But an estimated $436m of that was going to come from servicing and re-fitting superyachts that would be drawn here by the event and New Zealanders have to ask whether they want their tax dollars to be used as bait to lure Russian oligarchs, robber barons and other shady figures to port so their vanity toys can be upgraded.
New Zealand already has a global reputation for being a safe investment haven for ill-gotten gains, its lax tax and trustee laws fingered in the Panama Papers as being attractive to those trying to conceal their wealth.
A Government willing to invest in an event that is essentially off-limits to women and those on lower incomes all in the hope it will lead to the super rich throwing some loose change about, sends a clear message that New Zealand is elitist and not fussy or particular about whom it does business.
The America's Cup, and by association Team New Zealand, have strong stories to back, but they are narrow, exclusive and privileged.
Investing in Team New Zealand would have been investing in division – a win for the haves and yet another blow for the have-nots - and ultimately it would have presented the country as two-tiered.
Auckland not winning the America's Cup hosting rights is not an act of betrayal but a lucky escape and the Government now has the chance to redirect its $99m of earmarked sports event investment into a vehicle that will cast the country as the egalitarian, diverse, cosmopolitan centre of excellence so many believe it is.
And as fate would have it, there is a near perfect investment opportunity on the horizon.
At some point later this year, New Zealand Rugby will be looking to raise $100m from institutional investors and on every level it makes sense for the Government to buy-in and preferably do so on a scale that gives them a seat at the boardroom table where they can build a new, hands-on relationship with the sport.
Rugby has the egalitarian profile that better encapsulates the country. It's gender and ethnically diverse, pervades deeper into the New Zealand psyche and is a significantly more accessible participation sport than sailing because you need boots and a ball, rather than a boat and the means to get it to the ocean.
The All Blacks are arguably New Zealand's most respected and most loved brand both here and offshore.
They not only consistently win, but they do so with a quintessential Kiwiness: the big stars carrying a humility which speaks to the grounded nature of New Zealanders.
The Black Ferns, in their shorter history, have shown much the same qualities of excellence, innovation and determination, and the sense of fun and unity that the Sevens team is carving out for itself, is starting to resonate on the world stage.
Rugby better represents modern New Zealand and projects an image of unity and equality – a country where background and upbringing are not barriers to success.
Even on a straight economic argument, a $100m investment in NZR's capital raise stacks as better business than pumping the same amount into the America's Cup.
A bet on rugby will provide annual multi-million dollar returns in perpetuity – and it will be reputable money, no taint to it, no lingering whiff of Russia and dubiously acquired assets clinging to it.
If New Zealand wants to use sport to tell a story about itself to the rest of the world, then rugby feels like it has a better narrative than the America's Cup.
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