Dialogue: Pay up or shut up in race to be an ocean race host

As the Volvo race yachts approach Auckland, WARD FRIESEN* says that unless we are prepared to spend money promoting the city as a stopover, we had better find a new use for the Viaduct Basin..

New Zealanders can rightly consider their country a leading, sporting competitor in international yacht racing. Not only have we won the America's Cup twice, but New Zealanders have risen to dominate other events.

The Volvo Ocean Race has no New Zealand boat, but two have New Zealand skippers, and every boat has at least one New Zealander, making up about one-third of all crew in the race.

New Zealanders have been involved from the first race in 1973. Five of the eight Whitbread or Volvo races since that time had one or more New Zealand boats competing, sponsored by New Zealand corporations. The wins of Sir Peter Blake in Steinlager 2 and Grant Dalton in New Zealand Endeavour are legendary.

Many racing yachts have become mobile billboards, suggesting that these races are as much about corporate competition as sport. As is the case in many other sports, global corporate branding and financing is displacing individual and national sporting prowess as critical in determining yacht racing outcomes.

Consider a couple of the leading boats, their sponsors and their crews. The affluent German Illbruck Challenge has an American skipper, six New Zealand crew and other crew from seven countries, including a lone German.

The Australian challenge Team News Corp has a New Zealand syndicate head, an Auckland-built boat, a British skipper, six New Zealanders, two Australians and two Irish in the crew, and Bart Simpson and Rupert Murdoch as backers.

Part of the logic behind Volvo taking over the Whitbread was that Whitbread beer did not have large enough markets in some of the countries which the race visited, while Volvo saw the race sponsorship as raising its profile in important markets.

This has had an impact on the port hosting competition, tending to favour large ports serving large markets. Sydney was added as a stopover in the last race in 1997-98; in this race the much smaller Fremantle has been dropped.

Likewise, Rio de Janeiro took over from the much smaller Punta del Este in Uruguay, and Boston was added in the United States.

The significance of the European market for Volvo is illustrated by the addition of La Rochelle, France, in the previous race (in which Volvo was co-sponsor). In this race Kiel in Germany and Gothenburg in Sweden were added.

The move of the race finish from Southampton, where it had been held for all but two of the Whitbread events, to Volvo's home port of Gothenburg illustrates the significance of changing corporate control of this more-than-sporting event.

But the Volvo Ocean Race is also about civic competition. In the global struggle to attract tourists, business venture capital and international credibility, the hosting of events such as this has become an arena of fierce competition between cities.

The race has been sailed eight times. No port city has hosted all eight of those races, but two cities have hosted seven of the eight events - Southampton and Auckland.

None of the host cities, including these two, can take its role for granted.

Southampton is closely associated with the Whitbread, although its neighbouring port on the Solent River, Portsmouth, hosted the first Whitbread, and if you believe Portsmouth promoters, it will eventually return there.

In the meantime, the Southampton City Council and private waterfront developers have invested large sums of money in retaining the Volvo race in their port city, although the investment of public money in this essentially private event has not gone unquestioned.

Aucklanders know, too, that it is not all plain sailing, and that other predatory ports are trying to take the Volvo race from them.

In the first race, in 1972-73, Sydney served as a stopover and Auckland was left out, and this could occur again if the number of host ports is reduced in this part of the world.

Active competitors are not only Sydney but also Fremantle, Melbourne and, even closer to home, Wellington. Our capital was one of the host ports for the BT Global Challenge round-the-world boats which visited last year.

Cynics say civic competition like that between Auckland and other Australasian cities serves the purposes of the race organisers as it shifts some of the cost of the event on to local government.

This certainly was the case for this Volvo race, in which the financial commitment of the local authorities in Auckland has escalated from initial estimates so it now appears that Auckland ratepayers are subsidising the event to the tune of about $1.5 million.

Race organisers and council officials say this is a modest sum when compared with the economic spin-offs for the city and country.

Studies of past events substantiate this, but also show that distribution of these spin-offs is relatively localised.

What is more difficult to measure is the value of these events to civic and national reputation and pride, and the less tangible spin-offs from these.

These, too, are not universally distributed, as suggested by the low rate of participation of some minority ethnic groups in yacht racing enthusiasm.

Of course, this could be said to be the case for much expenditure by local councils. While the distribution of the benefits of council spending must be monitored to ensure equity, if promotion of place is not seen to be a legitimate core business of Auckland local government, this wannabe global city had better find another use for the Viaduct Basin.

* Ward Friesen is a senior lecturer in geography at the University of Auckland.