Auckland drops out of hosting World Gay Games, can't back Lions tour
Auckland is quitting the race to hold the 2030 Gay Games, and says a lack of funding is also putting a string of other potential major event hostings, including the Lions rugby tour, at risk.
The council's culture and events agency Tataki Auckland Unlimited (TAU) said it had pursued the hosting rights for the 2030 games, over 18 months, but a shortage of long-term funds meant it couldn't continue into the next round, in May.
Auckland mayor Wayne Brown's proposed reduction in ratepayer funding for major events is one of the factors also creating uncertainty about the future of the Sail GP regatta. And the women's and men's Lions tours and a cricket world cup event later this decade are also beyond Tataki Auckland Unlimited's ability to agree funding.
'It was an immense effort to have Auckland selected in December 2024 as one of three finalist cities to work through to the ultimate round of (Gay Games) hosting requirements,' said TAU chief executive Nick Hill, in a memo on Monday this week to the mayor and councillors, seen by Newsroom.
'The Gay Games is the biggest cultural and sporting event for LGBTQIA+ athletes,' said Hill of the 10-day event staged every four years.
Auckland was down to the final three in bidding to host the 2030 World Gay Games.
Auckland Council and the government were to share the $10 million cost, for an event expected to deliver nearly 100,000 visitor nights, and contribute $20.8m to the regional economy.
Hill said the possible hosting had already attracted significant interest from commercial sponsors, but council's proposed level of event funding did not allow it to commit to hostings beyond each financial year.
'TAU went into the Gay Games bid process (late 2023) in good faith, on the assumption that the issue of major events funding would be resolved by now,' said Hill.
The memo also suggested the same lack of longer term funding posed questions over bids for the Women's Lions rugby tour in 2027, the Men's Lions tour in 2029, and the ICC T20 Cricket World Cup in 2028. Hill said the risk to those events had not been made public and was shared with councillors in confidence.
The agency is caught between the Government's decision not to allow Auckland Council to create a hotel levy to help fund events and tourism attraction, and the council's own current proposal to shrink major event funding to a record low, of around $7m.
This compares with funding for events and tourism attraction of around $28m when Brown's predecessor Phil Goff took office in 2016.
Goff halved that amount of ratepayer funding, but his idea of replacing that sum by rating hotel and motel properties for an extra $14m, was eventually dumped after being suspended during the Covid-19 pandemic.
That funding was never restored and Wayne Brown, elected mayor in 2022, proposed a further cut, hoping in vain that the Government would approve a regional hotel bed levy.
The hotel sector had made an impassioned plea to Auckland Council to restore major event funding, with the strategic director at the Hotel Council Aotearoa, James Doolan, penning an op-ed in March.
'If event attraction and destination marketing is as important as you say it is, please stop wasting money elsewhere,' wrote Doolan.
'Take a tiny part of your annual budget and return tourism funding to where it was a decade ago. This stuff is important to all Aucklanders and it drives future economic growth.'
Another immediate event problem looming is the next Auckland round of Sir Russell Coutt's Sail GP regatta in early 2026.
The government is contracted to help fund one more round of the series, but Coutts is keen to enter a six-year deal with Auckland.
'We want it to be an annual event on Auckland's calendar,' wrote Hill to the mayor and councillors.
'However, we can only stretch to commit to a one-year deal in 2026.'
Newsroom has approached the mayor, Wayne Brown, for comment. At the council's governing body meeting in March, he observed that the Prime Minister had kept telling him local bodies should focus on core essential services and no longer fund 'nice-to-haves'.
'The PM has been giving me a lecture all year – I get incessant lectures – we're not allowed to have anything nice-to-have.'
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