Jobs go as Edge loses $300,000 more

Auckland City's entertainment business, The Edge, is expected to make a $300,000 operating loss this year as well as losing $2.5 million on the musical My Fair Lady and two star-studded plays.

The disappointing year has also led to three part-time staff being made redundant as a result of closing the Aotea Centre and Auckland Town Hall when the venues are not in use.

The closures are expected to save $250,000 a year.

The Opera Australia production of My Fair Lady and an international arts programme of two classic plays - William Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale and Anton Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard - ran up losses of $1.9 million and $600,000 respectively in one month.

Auckland City councillors knew ticket sales were poor and a big loss was imminent when they bailed out the musical to the tune of $1.4 million a week before the opening on March 25.

Edge chairman Peter Stubbs yesterday told the council's finance committee that the risk tolerance had been considerably scaled back, and the business would be "sticking to its knitting" in future.