Brent Eccles and Steve Armitage: Eccles Entertainment founder and Hospitality NZ chief executive on how we can bring more major events to NZ

Prime Minister Chris Luxon recently claimed he wants a constant flow of events to draw in international guests in order to stimulate the economy.

This follows big names in the tourism sector, like Sudima Hotels, calling for further investment into major events. 

Eccles Entertainment founder Brent Eccles says the nation's major events fund has only covered sporting events, not concerts.

"It's quite a long lead time to access the fund - and with contemporary music, you don't have that lead time, it's pretty hard and fast. So we'll never quite be able to qualify."

Steve Armitage Hospitality NZ chief executive agrees extra funding is needed to bring more events to New Zealand. 

"There are a lot of other artists I think it'll be great to bring here - Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, The Eagles... first class, international entertainment works well in a stadium."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now onto other matters. The Prime Minister is calling for
a change to how we fund major events. He told
Ryan Bridge this morning that sporting events and concerts are
key to getting the economy back up and running.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
I really want us to rethink what we do with
the Major Events Fund because it takes a while for events.

Speaker 1 (00:15):
And activity to come to a country.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
You've actually got to stuff it as a pipeline.

Speaker 1 (00:19):
Brent eccles is the founder of Ecles Entertainment and a
representative for Frontier Touring New Zealand, and Steve Armitag is
the CEO of Hospitality New Zealand. We've got both of
them with us.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
High lads, Good Monday, Brent.

Speaker 1 (00:31):
Is what do we need to rethink about?

Speaker 3 (00:33):
This?

Speaker 1 (00:33):
Isn't isn't the problem that actually the fund was working
perfectly then we stopped the fund working perfectly well.

Speaker 3 (00:39):
From a contemporary music perspective, it all sounds good, but
they never ever founded anything out of the Major Events
Fund and it is only sport.

Speaker 1 (00:47):
Oh really, we never did any concerts or anything like that.

Speaker 3 (00:50):
No, no, never.

Speaker 1 (00:52):
Okay, have you got a problem with us just doing
sport out of it?

Speaker 3 (00:56):
No? I don't. There's quite a long lead time to
access the fun and with contemporary music you don't have
that lead time. It's pretty it's pretty hard and fast,
so you'll never quite be able to qualify. And as
I say, the major events fun has been focused on sport,
not rock and roll.

Speaker 1 (01:15):
Do you think that we need to just get it
moving faster? Is that the problem?

Speaker 3 (01:19):
Absolutely? Yeah, absolutely, it's not that hard to do if
they have relationships. There's only read two or three promoters
who work in that realm, and it's it's pretty easy
to get into the pipeline. And actually they're able to
pin points in the funds. But the sooner the better.
I love the sound of it.

Speaker 1 (01:35):
How long was it taking break to get the money
out of it?

Speaker 3 (01:38):
Well, I think it was like a three month lead time.
It doesn't work for rock and roll. You need it
within a month, just by the time, just by the
time the show comes on and by the time it
goes on, saleses very quick. So you've got to get
those things sorted out with budgets on all kinds of
agents and managers and all down the chain around the world.

(01:58):
You've got to take across the line. So it needs
to be the need to put some sort of reserves
and money for contemporary music, and then it can just
need the access with a good relationship. That's the way
to do that.

Speaker 1 (02:10):
Now, Steve, what's gone wrong here? Because I'm just just
from an all climp perspective. We haven't got anything on
the calendar and haven't had anything on the calendar since,
like seriously since Coldplay, So why Well.

Speaker 2 (02:21):
First of all, can I just say when I heard
this this morning, my first reaction was about time. We've
been highlighting the importance of a consistent five events for
years and an actual fact, I think this speaks directly
to the government's own ambition to double the value of tourism.
You need strong demand drivers and events have proven winners
in that regard, so that this is a really interesting
mindset shift. The argument that the Prime Minister made this

(02:44):
morning in support of events was nowhere to be seen
earlier this year when we get the America's Cup as
a potential option. So it's really interesting to see.

Speaker 3 (02:51):
How that shift. Well, we were.

Speaker 2 (02:54):
In with a chance to secure the America's Cup here
in New Zealand. The same argument that the Prime Minister
was making this morning around the fund that generates the
importance of having a consistent pipeline of major events. And
the Melbourne comparison was really interesting because he's talking about
really large, global scale of events being hosted every quarter.
That's a great aim, but we know where near having

(03:16):
the funding in place to be able to deliver that.

Speaker 1 (03:19):
What is tell me, Steve if I'm imagining it? But
it felt to me as if we had a bunch
of stuff on the calendar and then the Major Events
Fund stopped funding things or did I just imagine that.

Speaker 3 (03:30):
There's a couple of.

Speaker 2 (03:31):
Layers to this. That a lot of funding used to
come through from Auckland Council through its council controlled organization,
and of course the councils had to pull back a
significant amount of funding. So the approach to major events
sort of prior to COVID was usually it was co
funded between the council and central government through the New
Zealand Major Events Fund. With the city under pressure, they

(03:53):
haven't been able to put together a fund fighting fund
for large scale major events.

Speaker 1 (03:59):
So that's the money was money that dried up and
that's what it was.

Speaker 2 (04:02):
Hence the argument for the accommodation levy.

Speaker 1 (04:04):
Okay, Now, Steve, have you got a better example than
the America's Cup, because that's a distinct example. I'm tired
of talking here.

Speaker 2 (04:12):
Well, yeah, if you go back to your recent history,
you know, we had the FIFA Women's World Cup here,
We've had we've co hosted a Cricket World Cup. I
know Brent's talking about music being different to sport, but
Auckland and New Zealand in particular was a custom every
year to having a global event here. Yes, and Brent's
absolutely right. Sometimes for an event like FIFA, that's sixty

(04:34):
seven years of hard work to get that over the
line before it's delivered here. And at the moment we'd
be starting largely from scratch, but we need some certainty
of funding to be able to get ourselves in front
of the queue.

Speaker 1 (04:45):
Okay, Brent, if you could pick, if you could pick
just one event that you would like to bring here,
what would it be? Taylor Swift?

Speaker 3 (04:52):
Ah? Well, you know we could dream about that. I
don't think that's ever going to work actually, but you
know that's been banning around a lot. There are a
lot of other artists of the will be great to
bring here.

Speaker 1 (05:02):
Then, who.

Speaker 3 (05:04):
Paul McCartney, how's that?

Speaker 1 (05:06):
Can I still travel a yeah.

Speaker 3 (05:09):
Yeah. How about Bruce Springsteen? How about that? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (05:14):
Been there, done that though, haven't we?

Speaker 3 (05:16):
How about the Eagles? Always great though. I mean, you know,
first class international entertainment and it works well in the stadium. Yeah,
there's not a lot, there's not a lot around, but
the stuff around is good.

Speaker 1 (05:27):
So you know, what do you reckon, Steve? Don't say
the America's Cup again.

Speaker 3 (05:33):
Uh?

Speaker 4 (05:34):
Look, large scale mass participation events are really good. We're
the World Masters Games here not so long ago. And
the good thing about that is that people stay for
longer too. They come and they compete in their in
their particular discipline, and then on average they were staying
up to two weeks either side. So you know, the
more that we can see that spend extend out across
a period of time, the better.

Speaker 1 (05:54):
Hey, guys, thank you very much. I think we're all
on board with the same idea. It's good to see
the Prime ministers as well. Brent Eccles, Steve Armitage Brents
obviously with Eccles Entertainment, the founder and Frontier Touring now
and then Steve Armitage is with Hospitality in New Zealand.

Speaker 4 (06:07):
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