Viaduct Basin gives advertisers a bonus run

By BERNARD ORSMAN

Hundreds of advertising billboards emblazoned with the names of America's Cup Village sponsors are still up at the Viaduct Basin nearly two weeks after the deadline for their removal.

Hoardings with the corporate logos of American Express, Steinlager, Air New Zealand, Telecom, Merrill Lynch and Compaq are stretched side by side around the water's edge.

American Express, which the Herald revealed paid nothing for exclusive naming rights to the village, has its name boldly displayed on banners and entrance archways to the village. The advertising was meant to come down by June 30.

Auckland City Council yesterday asked America's Cup Village Ltd (ACVL) when it was going to remove the advertising after two complaints.

A resident of the Latitude 37 apartment building overlooking the basin, Chris Cotton, said locals had bowed to commercialism for the duration of the America's Cup and it was time to return the Viaduct Basin to its intrinsic state.

He said ACVL had turned the Viaduct Basin into a free advertising zone by failing to meet the deadline. In the four months since Cup racing ended in March it had done nothing.

A council open spaces adviser, Paul Wilson, said he had sought a timetable from ACVL, the public company which ran the Cup village, for the removal of the advertising and equipment for the sound system and closed-circuit television at the village. He said there were safety and ownership issues that needed to be resolved if the metal rails that held the advertising hoardings in place, which were owned by ACVL, were removed.

ACVL chief executive Ian Collinson said he was talking with the council and other landowners about their future requirements.

In the interests of public safety, the hoardings would stay in place but he did not say when the advertising would come down.