Rotorua District Council events experts have been hired to manage the four Bay of Plenty rugby matches being played at Tauranga City Council's Baypark Stadium.
They have been brought in by the council-controlled organisation which has run Baypark for nearly two years.
The curious situation of Tauranga City Venues Ltd (TCVL) hiring experts employed by Rotorua District Council was revealed in the fall-out of controversy surrounding speedway missing out on its usual Labour Weekend start to the season. TCVL disappointed speedway promoter Willie Kay by booking the Steamers match against Taranaki on October 25.
TCVL executive director Grant Seagar defended the event-management decision, telling the Bay of Plenty Times that he asked Rotorua to provide a couple of people who knew what they were doing.
Mr Seagar said the request for TCVL to manage the four games was sprung on them six to eight weeks ago by the Bay of Plenty Rugby Union.
He said TCVL had not needed event-management specialists on staff because rugby and speedway did everything themselves. However, the Bay of Plenty Rugby Football Union's financial difficulties led it to shed staff with event-organising expertise, leaving it to TCVL to manage Baypark's four Steamers' games on August 22 (Waikato), September 5 (Canterbury), September 17 (Tasman) and October 25 (Taranaki)
Mr Seagar said the rugby union wanted the same arrangement as the games played at Rotorua's International Stadium, where everything was managed by the council, who then billed the union.
He said TCVL was not experienced enough to move to the Rotorua International Stadium model for managing events, so it contracted Rotorua to provide a couple of people to make sure everything ran smoothly for the games at Baypark. The two Rotorua experts would also train Baypark staff.
"We are looking at building our own team to run major events."
Meanwhile, he did not want things to go wrong for the opening game against Waikato, which was expected to attract a big crowd.
"We decided that the Rotorua people would be the best to do the job."
The new arrangement with rugby meant TCVL was doing everything except ticketing. Security, parking and traffic control were the major issues that needed expert event managers, Mr Seagar said.
The costs incurred by TCVL to contract the Rotorua experts would be small because the rugby union was being billed for everything except the training.
STEAMERS TOP TABLE - P12
Rotorua expertise called in to handle Steamers' matches in Tauranga
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