There is a saying in politics that sometimes you have to swallow a dead rat. This is the predicament the Dunedin City Council found itself in with respect to the latest visit to the public trough by "rugby" and its various associates.
That the majority of councillors decided to hold their noses and swallow at last night's testy meetings is understandable given the dead-end alternatives, but this cannot have made the meal any more palatable. The anger and acrimony among councillors faced with making such an unenviable decision will have left some with a bitter aftertaste.
In the end, they made the calculation the ratepayers of this city had more to lose in rejecting the deal before them than they had in accepting it. As part of a larger transaction to stave off the demise of the Otago Rugby Football Union, the council was asked to consider writing off round-figure debts of $400,000. In return, the council sought a three-year programme of top-tier All Black test matches at Forsyth Barr stadium, receipts of a North versus South charity rugby match at the stadium in June, and a long-term hire agreement tying the Highlanders to the stadium.
Barring the last of these, the DCC has won those terms at least and a three-year venue hire agreement with ORFU for the ITM Cup team.
Without such a long-term residency at the stadium, enough councillors obviously believed the funding structures providing income to Dunedin Venues Management Ltd (DVML) - and thus to the council - could come under threat. Private sector income from lounge memberships and seating packages, sold on the basis of these matches at the stadium, would have been in jeopardy. Without them, sponsorship deals would also have been under a cloud. And while All Black matches at the stadium would have been a welcome fillip to the city, they would not have underpinned the stadium's financial plan.
It is hard to imagine that without such arrangements, without a robust and solid key tenant at Forsyth Barr Stadium, regardless of the many other activities and events it will doubtless host in years to come, the venue could meet the debt repayment commitments required of it by the council.
It could have indeed have become the "white elephant" that many of its opponents have long claimed it to be.
In plain language, the DCC was faced with bailing out a local rugby union to protect its investment and income stream from the new stadium. That involved negotiations with DVML, the New Zealand Rugby Union, the Bank of New Zealand and the New Zealand Rugby Players Association, illustrating just how complex and interrelated the issues have become - and how intertwined the DCC's affairs have become with those of the sport in this city. That proximity will give rise to further close and appropriate scrutiny of the council.
Ratepayers are well within their rights to ask, for instance, how financial arrangements between the DCC and the ORFU were allowed to deteriorate to the point the rugby union owed the council $400,000. How were Carisbrook rental arrears permitted to accumulate to more than $200,000; why was there more than $120,000 in unpaid rates; what measure of management allowed for the accumulation of more than $60,000 in insurance and sports ground charges?
The "new" ORFU must be restructured and reinvented so that it lives within its means. Last night's announcement confirmed the ORFU board would be replaced, a necessary first step in this process. Future relationships between the DCC and the ORFU must be plainly transparent. There must be full accountability for decisions made rather than long-winded evasions and obfuscations.
The city's long-suffering ratepayers, particularly those who have no interest whatsoever in rugby, cannot be asked again to meet its shortfalls.
Some in the city will be mightily relieved at yesterday's outcome but many, quite rightly, will be angry that yet again the council appears to have privileged the rugby community. But nobody can or should be overjoyed at the situation. The DCC has made the best of a poor situation. Faced with a choice between bad and worse, it has chosen the former. For its part, "rugby" in this city is now drinking in the last chance saloon. It has its own formidable array of rats to swallow - and it must get on with it while it still can.
