The Americas Cup and the ANZAC Test – the thing they have in common

Today it was announced that the Government had declined to come to the party to help fund an Auckland America’s Cup. The press release from Team New Zealand all seemed very amicable, they said they understood the government prioritizing funding other areas during tough economic times. I think most people (rational people at least) can understand that. The line in the Stuff article that caught my eye was from Nick Hill, the CEO of Auckland Unlimited – he basically said that New Zealand needed a better model to be able to support major events.

So, what does this have to do with NZR pulling the plug on the idea of an ANZAC test in Perth? Well, if you read Mark Robinson’s reasoning, he kind of makes the same point. His point, and I’m paraphrasing based on my understanding, an annual ANZAC test can only work if it swaps between Australia and New Zealand and the commercial realities of events in New Zealand meant the test doesn’t work commercially here. So, you either play it in Australia every year or lose the commercial rationale for it every second year.

So, what were Perth willing to do for an ANZAC test that Auckland Council and Central Government weren’t prepared to do for an Americas Cup? Very simple – front up with cash. Cash to underwrite the event and make it commercially viable.

Big events in Australia are a competitive process between states. Every couple of years the NRL will play Brisbane and Sydney off against each other in an attempt to get a bigger fee or a better stadium deal for hosting the NRL grand final. Cities and states scrap over cricket tests. The NSW government threw big money at the A-League (that for a while it couldn’t turn down) to guarantee hosting the A-League grand final in Sydney. These states all have big investments in stadiums that they need to justify, and they do that by attracting events. Western Australia/Perth were, according to Tim Horan on Australian TV, willing to throw huge money at both NZR and ARU to attract the ANZAC Test.

We just don’t do that in New Zealand. For reasons that are structural, economic and probably cultural. There would not be a single Council in New Zealand who could justify the economic outlay to underwrite/pay a fee comparable to Perth to host a New Zealand ANZAC test. Ratepayers in my city are currently screaming about Council staff having hydration stations (yes, water coolers) in the office. Can you imagine how they’d react if Council underwrote a test match with a significant hosting fee? We don’t have local authorities, or state governments, willing to fight each other to host big games.

Don’t get me wrong, Councils underwriting events and working with promotors happens. The Auckland Council branding on the press conference backdrops for the All White qualifier last weekend suggests there was Council funding involved in bringing that game to Eden Park, but it’s hard to imagine it was big dollars.

All of that then brings me back to the Nick Hill comment, does New Zealand have a strategy for attracting major events? If we can’t justify throwing money at an All Blacks test, what can we justify throwing money at? The Government, as I understand it, pitched in to bring the Women’s Lions tour here in 2027 but that feels like three economic cycles ago. Strategies and plans are supposed to be in place so you can avoid reactive ad-hoc policy making. While the Americas Cup decision feels like the right decision in isolation, hosting a Team New Zealand defence of an Americas Cup feels like something Auckland should be doing.

It’s an insanely difficult question with no good answer and in the end it all comes down to priorities. But people like nice things and people like having fun, events do that. So, when times are tough people want those things to fall back on and at the moment it’s hard to see where those events will come from.

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