Riddle me this: Are our rates going towards protecting celebrities who want to party late at night? Is the Auckland Regional Council (ARC) now in the business of managing private parties at bars?
As ludicrous as it sounds, that appeared to be the case last night when an officious representative from the ARC - Mt Smart Stadium sales and marketing manager
Lisa Hobday
- stood at the doorway of notorious celebrity nightspot Spy bar last night, and checked names off a list for a private late-night party that
and members of the LA Galaxy were attending. Is Hobday marketer by day; bouncer by night?
The diva doorwoman with ash-blonde tresses flowing, flexed any power and influence she could possibly wield last night by deciding who could enter the party and who could not. I know this because I found myself persona non grata.
Nevermind that my name was on the list by special invitation of the owner of the nightspot who was hosting and paying for the party. Nevermind that Spy bar is a long way from Hobday's home of empty stands at Mt Smart Stadium. The self-important former real estate agent was adamant - "no entry for Glucina."
Pity, really. I would have thought with the dismal sales of tickets to the LA Galaxy match on Saturday night, the sales and marketing manager would have wanted positive publicity to profile Beckham's visit and sell more tickets. I would have thought that would have been glaringly obvious.
said 19,000 to 20,000 tickets will need to be sold for the Auckland Regional Council to recover the costs of bringing the soccer star and his team to Auckland. As of Tuesday night, only 15,000 had gone. However, a well-informed insider says "22,000 - 25,000 tickets need to be sold for the project to be cost-neutral". Will we the ratepayer be footing the bill?
Let's face it, Beckham fever is over. He may be the highest-paid football star in the world but New Zealanders are ambivalent to his visit to our shores - again! He was only here twelve months ago. Was it wise for the ARC to fork out the big bucks to underwrite his trip?
Beckham, for his part, must be enjoying the low-key nature of his visit this time-round, compared to the constant media spotlight he was under in Wellington last year. Not to mention the hundreds of fans who thronged the entry of his Oriental Bay hotel every day and followed his every move.
By contrast, at The Westin Hotel yesterday, I didn't spy one fan out the front. Becks was able to leave and go to a gym nearby for a work out, where he was snapped on the treadmill picking his nose. The photos have appeared on the UK's
Last night, Becks and his team spent several hours enjoying a meal at popular Ponsonby eatery Magnum. They were due to appear at the private Spy bar party at 10pm but were enjoying their meal so much they finally made their entrance at 11:30pm and stayed only an hour.
One disappointed promo girl who was at Spy described the situation best: "Becks and the guys sat in their own corner with his bodyguards around. I couldn't get near. None of us could. It was like there was an invisible fence. It was all rather silly, really. He looked so bored, like he just wanted to go home. And we watched him like voyeurs."
If that was boring, poor Becks and his team are scheduled to appear at a charity event tonight. Let's hope he can schedule some fun time in later where officious bureaucratic types aren't wielding power and clipboards. At least, then, someone will get something profitable out of this visit.
Rachel Glucina
Pictured above: David Beckham, and the rest of the LA Galaxy football team, arrives at Auckland International Airport. Photo / Richard Robinson
