Eden Park is one of two venues proposed to be crowned Auckland's main stadium.
Ahead of a crucial vote this Thursday on Auckland’s future stadium strategy, Eden Park’s regular hosting of Auckland councillors has come under scrutiny. Michael Burgess reports.
On Friday, March 8 last year, American superstar Pink performed in front of a boisterous 45,000-strong crowd in Auckland.
Among those in attendance that night were 10 Auckland councillors, all hosted by the Eden Park Trust Board. That group, which represented half of the sitting council, included Deputy Mayor Desley Simpson and veteran officials John Watson and Wayne Walker, who enjoyed the concert from the best seats in the house.
Each councillor could bring a guest, while one was given a total of four passes.
While city dignitaries attending events is nothing new, the timing will be questioned. That concert was staged during a period when a council working group was considering four options for Auckland’s Main Stadium – city centre proposals at Quay Park, Wynyard Point and Bledisloe Wharf, along with a revamped Eden Park.
During that process, the Herald understands that the four bid teams were instructed not to engage with councillors. This was a measure intended to ensure a confidential process, with all communication meant to be through councillor Shane Henderson, who led the working group.
Around two months later – at the end of May 2024 – the council voted to proceed with two options, Eden Park 2.1 – complete with a roof, or a precinct development at Quay Park, in the vicinity of Spark Arena, with hotels, apartments, bars, restaurants and a 50,000-seat stadium. Those two groups have since completed feasibility studies – which have been assessed by council experts – before the governing body debates the two options this Thursday.
Mayor Wayne Brown has emphasised there are no ratepayer funds available – at this stage – but the successful bid will need local and central government behind it.
Ahead of what could be a definitive moment for New Zealand’s sporting future, the number of councillors who have attended events at Eden Park during the current term will come under the spotlight.
Fourteen councillors, each with a guest, attended Coldplay’s first performance in Auckland last November, where top-of-the-range tickets were priced at over $250.
Eight representatives went to Billy Joel in December 2022.
According to information released under the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act, 15 councillors have accepted such gifts from Eden Park during this current term, which started in October 2022.
Watson has attended the most events (nine), while Simpson, Kerrin Leoni and Lotu Fuli went to seven. Leoni claimed a total of 25 tickets, including four apiece to concerts by Pink, Ed Sheeran, Travis Scott and Luke Coombs.
A music industry expert estimated her haul would be worth “thousands” if purchased.
Councillors Mike Lee, Shane Henderson, Alf Filipaina, Julie Fairey and Sharon Stewart were the only ones not hosted by Eden Park.
Veteran politician Lee said he had a lot of commitments in his private time, including a book project but also admitted experience told him to be careful with such invitations.
“It’s an instinct – just take it easy,” said Lee. “If you are hanging around corporate boxes all the time that can be overdone. I wouldn’t advise councillors doing too much of that myself but there you go. One has to be cautious with this sort of thing.”
Henderson said it was an individual decision but backed his colleagues.
“There are legitimate work purposes to this kind of stuff,” said Henderson. “To go out and build networks and relationships in different sectors and also to experience the events that we’re actually going to be talking about around the table, right?”
Equally, he understood how such invitations could be perceived, and chose not to be hosted by Eden Park during this period.
“When you’re in an active process and especially for me, as the chair of the [stadiums] group, you’ve got to be extra careful around perceptions at this time,” said Henderson.
“I understand how people are seeing these stories and thinking, ‘Goodness me, don’t know about that one'.”
However, Henderson said his council decisions won’t be impacted by such freebies.
“I don’t think it has affected or will affect people’s vote or their decision-making,” said Henderson.
For her part, Fairey has a blanket rule of generally not accepting hosting invitations or tickets.
“Different people make different decisions,” said Fairey. “I have colleagues who take everything offered to them, and I have colleagues who just take the odd thing and everything in between.”
Like Henderson, Fairey can see the worth to councillors in accepting such invitations.
“You get familiar with the venues, you’re seen to publicly be supporting important arts, sporting events and stuff like that,” said Fairey.
“So I can see some value in it. For myself, I’ve drawn a line and gone, no, I’m going to go to these things under my own steam when I can, and if I can. I don’t need to go to the corporate box in order to have a really good understanding of what a stadium is doing.”
Watson was comfortable with his attendance at various events, pointing out he had been going to Eden Park for “decades and decades” to watch rugby and cricket, which pre-dated any free invitations as a counsellor.
“I go to any stadium I’m invited to, whether it’s Eden Park, Mount Smart, North Harbour, Rosedale, Trusts Stadium,” said Watson.
“If I get invited to an event, I generally try and go along and look upon it as part of my job. I enjoy going along, I like all sorts of sports and Auckland Council often has money invested in the facilities in, in one form or another.”
Watson added it was a “bit of a stretch” to think that councillors are “somehow conflicted by taking up invites”, though he can understand the perception.
“I just say straight-up I’ve never been lobbied in terms of this process,” said Watson.
“I have gone along to these occasional events, but I could honestly say hand on heart, I’ve never been lobbied by anyone from Eden Park in any direct or indirect way as far as bringing up their proposal or anything like that.”
Simpson and Leoni did not return calls or messages from the Herald.
In response to inquiries over whether such behaviour was appropriate, the Eden Park Trust Board provided the following statement.
“We would expect our elected council officials, including local board members, to attend events at Eden Park – from citizenship ceremonies and cultural festivals to charity-led, community, accessibility-focused and sustainability-driven events,” chief executive Nick Sautner told the Herald.
“Under our event funding agreements with Tātaki Auckland Unlimited, Eden Park Trust is required to invite council representatives to attend many of these occasions.
“We are very comfortable extending invitations to our stakeholders so they can see first-hand the social and economic value Eden Park brings to the region. Over the past 14 years, the stadium has contributed more than $1 billion in GDP to the wider Auckland economy.
“Council representatives regularly attend events at a range of venues across the city. Unlike other council-controlled venues, Eden Park receives no ongoing operational funding from Auckland Council.”
A stadium industry veteran, who has been involved with downtown stadium projects, said the revelations were disappointing.
“While not surprised, I am disappointed to the extent this has occurred, especially when all the participants in this process were explicitly told not to engage with councillors and officials,” he said.
“It just illustrates the unfair playing field that Eden Park and its PR machine have had to influence decision-makers for many years.”
A power unit ultimately gave out, and forced the Kiwi’s hand in Montreal.