Viv Beck: Heart of the City CEO on the Government investigating potential changes to Eden Park's event rules

Auckland businesses are keen to see what benefits more events at Eden Park could bring them.  

The Government's looking at Eden Park's rules, including the number of concerts and sporting events that can be held, and a 2000 person limit for conferences.  

It's exploring whether current rules are holding back economic growth.  

Heart of the City Chief Executive Viv Beck told Ryan Bridge even a single added concert can do wonders.  

She says a single P!nk concert brought in more than $6 million in spend.  

LISTEN ABOVE 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So Haling Clark heading back this morning as the government
goes after Eden Park's restrictions. Only six artists are allowed
to play a total of twelve shows a year there,
and only on certain days. You've got a curfew on weeknights.
These are two thousand. I didn't realize this until yesterday.
Two thousand max capacity for conferences there. Consultation on changes

(00:20):
getting underway. Vivbek, Heart of the City CEO with us
this morning. Viv, good morning, Good morning. How ridiculous are
these rules?

Speaker 2 (00:29):
Well, what I can say is that this is all
about driving economic growth and I think the idea of
actually testing this to enable more concerts wherever they might be.
But it's about the size and the scale. If we're
going to benchmark ourselves with Brisbane they had forty five,
I think as I understand that their Economic Development Agency

(00:50):
supported more than forty five events, I think it might
have been twenty four that generated two hundred million economic
activity and bought two hundred thousand people to the city.
So you know, we're talking about unlocking the ability to
really utilize major events as a big economic driver.

Speaker 1 (01:09):
Do we have the same infrastructure and capacity though as Brisbane.

Speaker 2 (01:12):
Has well you know, Eden Park is clearly the largest
stadium in the country, and we've got others coming on
stream but not as big. So it's you know, we're
going to have to do something that's fit for purpose here.
But I think the idea of having a look at
these rules to see what's possible is important. And you know,
the factor is that these are the opportunities we've been

(01:34):
asking for. We're looking for a long term, sustainable pipeline
of events with sustainable funding. Now that's not what's here.
We've got some immediate money, which is terrific to drive things.
From our perspective, coming out of a decade of major
construction and disruption, this is the sort of thing that
can actually start to get things moving.

Speaker 1 (01:55):
Yeah, what do you think they're going to do because
they've announced this one off money for the major events?
What are you think they're going to do it because
they're talking or they want a pipeline that they need
to stuff going forward? Is that? Do you reckon that
they're going to I reckon the nets are going to
go to the election with a bed tax. What do
you reckon?

Speaker 2 (02:10):
Well, there's going to have to be something, and they've
pushed back I understand if they pushed back on it
because there was well, they're not going to do it
this term. There's quite a lot of support for it
to be national rather than regional. Obviously there's a big
push here to get something locally to get things moving,
but I think what we do need is to see

(02:30):
what's going to come beyond that. There has to be
something If we're going to be in this space, we're
going to have to have a sustainable funding model. So
this is really an interim step. I think it's been
really well received from our perspective. If you look at
something like a Pink you know, we had a day
of six and a half million dollars of spend. You know,
those sort of concerts make a massive difference, and that's

(02:51):
really what we want to unlock here. And I think,
you know, having a lock at these rules to see
what is possible to really start to grow and make
sure we're in it for the long time, that's going
to be key because we have to have the artists
wanting to come here. It has to be, you know,
something that's viable. But there's certainly a big opportunity from
an economic perspective.

Speaker 1 (03:10):
Everyone talks about Pink. I mean it was a great concert,
wasn't that. There's no doubt, no denying that.

Speaker 2 (03:15):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (03:15):
I appreciate your time this morning, vivid Heart of the
City's CEO.

Speaker 2 (03:19):
For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge, Listen live
to news talks it'd be from five am weekdays, or
follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.