Eden Park boss Nick Sautner warns stadium would be ‘extinct’ without new events
Eden Park is forecasting a tiny profit next year with a “soft” concert schedule and says the stadium would be “extinct” if it hadn’t broadened its events programme.
Park boss Nick Sautner addressed Auckland councillors yesterday, six days after 55,000 fans packed Eden Park for the Metallica concert, queued to buy pricey merchandise and filled the city’s hotels, paying up to $2000 a night.
“We need to get people to Eden Park,” Sautner told councillors at one stage during a regular six-monthly presentation.
He was speaking just days before the council was due to consider a proposal allowing up to 20 medium-sized concerts of 10,000–30,000 attendees annually at Eden Park, in addition to the 12 concerts it already hosts.
The proposal has also recommended that the venue should be allowed to host up to 12 “large” concerts of more than 30,000 attendees a year.
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has asked the council for feedback on the plan. Councillors will consider a report from the Ministry for the Environment on the issue at a planning committee meeting on Thursday.
The report has found that strict limits on the number, timing, and size of events at Eden Park were holding back the stadium’s potential to drive economic growth and create employment opportunities.
Sautner outlined the difficulties facing the stadium to councillors yesterday, saying it was challenging how it operated, and the trust had even been approached about being a charter school, which didn’t work.
“I can’t tell you what the future looks like,” he said, “but I can say we need to get Super Rugby crowds up to what they used to attract ... the All Blacks, touch wood, will continue to sell out, but for other activity, there’s a whole genre we should be looking at.”
Sautner said this could include apartments around the stadium’s edge, similar to London’s Wembley. He noted that intensification may accelerate with the opening of the City Rail Link, boosting Kingsland’s cafes, restaurants, and bars.
He said Eden Park can’t currently hold festivals, unlike the Domain and Western Springs.
“Why can’t we do a 10,000 standing only (festival) on the field of play. That would be classified as one of our six artists and 12 shows,” Sautner said.
Sautner said Eden Park had enjoyed a diversified calendar of content during the just-completed financial year, including three nights of Coldplay concerts.
Auckland Cricket and Auckland Rugby moving from Eden Park would optimise the events calendar, he said. The Blues had been secured for two years, and there had been international cricket, albeit with lower numbers “than we would like”.
Sautner said the concert content was soft over the next 12 months, but Eden Park was hosting the Edinburgh Tattoo and the Jehovah’s Witness Congress in January, with more than 20,000 people attending over each of the three days, and filling about 17,000 room nights.
Chief finance officer Brett Winstanley said the Eden Park Trust was forecasting a $4.2 million profit this year (after interest and before depreciation), driven by successful events such as the Coldplay concerts and two All Black tests. However, with fewer major events expected next year, the projected profit was $145,000.
Sign up to The Daily H, a free newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.