Mystery Creek cries foul over council's event lures

Waikato/Bay of Plenty Magic matches now play at Claudelands. Photo / McKeown Photography

Waikato's Mystery Creek Events Centre is struggling to compete with the funding and incentives offered by the Hamilton City Council to lure events to the new $68.4 million Claudelands Events Centre.

But the council has defended partnering and sponsoring events, saying it is common practice.

The Mystery Creek centre's president, Lloyd Downing, said he had no problems with competition but did not think it was fair if ratepayers were subsidising events by up to $100,000.

The events centre, on Hamilton's outskirts, had lost several events to the new centre, including the Waikato/Bay of Plenty Magic netball matches, and was also aware of several other events in talks about moving to Claudelands.

"My understanding is there is a subsidy available to customers to go to Claudelands - how much I don't know - but it makes it very hard to compete.

"I would be rather interested to see how much they are charging for the netball, because we subsidised that about $500,000 over 14 years."

The council had not had any applications to fund the netball but said it would have to go through the same process as anyone else.

The council's acting general manager for events and economic development, Lance Vervoort, said the $450,000 partnership fund attracted events in a highly competitive environment and ensured council facilities were well-used.

The budget had been used once this year and has to be approved by a panel comprising staff and elected members.

As well, $1 million was available to event organisers holding events in the city and nine of 37 approved for the 2011/12 year were at Claudelands.

The council would not say how much it pays towards individual events, citing commercial sensitivity.

Council event sponsorship subcommittee chairwoman Angela O'Leary said events could apply for up to $100,000 from the special event fund.

Ms O'Leary said the committee looked to sponsor events in and around Hamilton as long as they benefited the city.