All stadium-related costs must be fully reviewed with no stone unturned, writes Murray Stott.
Since Carisbrook, the so-called House of Pain, was traded for the new Forsyth Barr Stadium, it could be said the House of Pain has now transmogrified into the Dreaded Dominatrix of Dunedin's ratepayers.
As we all know, the venue struggles to attract sellout gigs as the debt mountain continues to climb.
Given events such as the recent football international would have cost upfront fees to stage (that the council keeps mum on yet Wellington published that they had shelled out a $750,000 fee for the four matches hosted there), and that the handful of headline musical acts staged thus far have also been further subsidised by the local ratepayers, surely it is time to slam the brakes on the stadium gravy train, for the few.
All related costs must be fully reviewed with no stone unturned.
Did the ratepayer really need to cover the freight cost of more than $5000 moving former stadium commercial manager Guy Hedderwick from Oamaru to Dunedin; and, was it really necessary for him to take over 60 flights of fancy, looking for sponsors at a cost of tens of thousands of dollars to the citizens; and, how much sponsorship resulted therefrom?
The council must ask: was the most productive management for the stadium by means of the council-owned DVML with its out-of-town directors and chairman, who are all flown to Dunedin at the drop of a hat for meetings - all at unnecessary cost to the poor ratepayers, yet again?
For example, when the chairman travels from his home in Rangiora, the Dunedin ratepayer covers his return cost to Christchurch airport at 85c a kilometre, on average $83.30 per trip; then he parks his Lexus under cover at a cost of $68 dollars; then flies Air New Zealand to Dunedin at full return fare, where he generally stays at the upmarket St Clair Hotel.
Over the past three years, the average ratepayer cost of his regular visits to Dunedin is about $1200 per time, that is about $2000 per month.
It is indeed entirely correct that the knight in his Lexus invoices the DCC (I have read them all) to cover such costs.
After all he only gets around $24,000 per year for his trouble.
This in contrast to the DVML's CEO average of $5000 per week.
The question here is: did the council really need a DVML board at all; and wouldn't they have saved the ratepayers' money by having a local chairman?
Further, why did the chairman travel courtesy of Dunedin ratepayers to Auckland this year to negotiate with promoters in the hope of booking Katy Perry for a gig?
Fat chance - her Boeing 767 cannot land at Dunedin airport.
And, wasn't such a task down to the CEO?
Or is this evidence of a vote of no confidence in the CEO's ability to close a deal?
It is noted the stadium missed out on the Rolling Stones and the Eagles, which comes as no surprise, given previous stadium management upset their promoter Michael Gudinski, of Frontier Touring Co, by virtue of their cancelling his initial bookings for Meatloaf and Rod Stewart.
And, they even missed out on Bob Dylan at the very time when he had requested to play away from the main centres, whereas Hamilton and Christchurch secured his sellout shows.
Now to confirm the fact the existing town hall is the most appropriate venue in Dunedin for a headline act where acoustics and intimacy are experiential values, look no further than Lorde's current booking.
Even the present DVML CEO agrees the town hall is the better venue for Lorde.
He has also been reported as saying that DVML has moved away from chasing artists.
What were they doing chasing artists in the first place, treading on promoters' toes?
He also extols that DVML has now developed a relationship with heavyweight promoters, albeit the Dainty Group and Frontier Touring.
I have to applaud his tenaciousness in trying to make amends for going forward.
The barrier to entry for achieving desirable ticket sales in Dunedin at speed remains limited population and low demographic.
Dunedin simply cannot continue to maintain the status quo of failing to achieve enough spins of the turnstiles to cover the stadium's ever-increasing cost blowouts.
Further, short of dismantling the stadium for which costs would not be covered by the sale of materials - as a council-commissioned report attests - the council could now look at selling the management rights to all of the DVML properties as a form of amelioration to the current stadium train wreck, or take over the management of their venues in-house to reduce costs and enable closer accountability to the council.
• Murray Stott is a trademark agent and sponsorship broker, formerly from Dunedin and now based in Auckland.
