Ocean racing an expensive sport for city's ratepayers

By BERNARD ORSMAN

Auckland City ratepayers are footing the bill for 30 yachting officials to stay at a luxury hotel for a month during next summer's Volvo Ocean Race stopover.

The Volvo events management team, which is following the yacht race at each of the 10 stopovers round the world, has been booked into the Somerset Grand Metropolis all-suite hotel while it is in Auckland next January.

Volvo project manager Virginia Terpstra refused to say how much the accommodation was costing ratepayers, except that the council had struck a good rate with Metropolis.

The 38-storey Metropolis, with its Italian limestone and marble foyer and antique furniture, has charges starting at $215 a night during summer, rising to $431 for a two-bedroom suite.

The hotel costs are part of a budget blowout for the Auckland stopover that Auckland City councillors are helping to plug with a $1 million injection.

Ratepayers are now paying $1.5 million for the stopover after being assured two years ago by Auckland mayor Christine Fletcher and her council that the 24-day event at the Viaduct Basin would cost $500,000.

The ratepayer bailout has become necessary after the original $1.5 million budget for managing the Auckland stopover was found to be inadequate. Revised costings have seen the budget rise to $3.75 million. Costs include helicopters and planes for visiting media and overseas trips to other stopover cities for members of the council's Volvo project team.

The council's finance committee chairwoman, Kay McKelvie, yesterday guaranteed that the race would not cost ratepayers any more than $1.5 million, saying she had gone "over and over" the sponsorship and income projections.

She said the stopover was projected to attract 500,000 visitors and generate $16 million for the local economy.

Herald Online Marine News