The crowd watches in awe as a rider flips in the air.
The organisers of Crankworx Rotorua 2018 have looked back on the March event and forward to what may change in 2019.
Event director Ariki Tibble spoke at Rotorua Lakes Council's operations and monitoring committee meeting yesterday and said the event would move from a nine-day event to a six or seven-day event in 2019.
Tibble said the organisers would also not bid for National Schools Championships which were likely to be held in the South Island next year.
"With that comes more top class competitors more international media and so we're really focused on just smashing that event out of the park in 2019."
Tibble also reported the revenue for the event.
Canada's Brett Rheeder thrills the crowd on his way to a Slopestyle gold medal during Crankworx Rotorua 2018. Photo/File
A total of $514,728 was brought in from commercial revenue, $678,524 from non-commercial investment and $270,037 from ticketing revenue and registration.
This compared with 2017 which saw $401,214 from commercial revenue, $745,435 from non-commercial investment and $314,293 from ticketing revenue and registration.
"Non-commercial revenue peaked in 2017 because that was the start of the new phase of our central government contract, so that is a high that we will not reach again," he said.
"From 2017 we're projecting an outgoing tide of non-commercial investment so one of the challenges we have is to make the commercial revenue increase at a rate that's quicker than that outgoing tide."
Tibble said the reduction in ticketing revenue was because of rain on the traditionally busy weekend days, and because of reduced ticket prices.
The organisers of Crankworx 2018 have looked back on the event. Photo/File
"By reducing our ticket prices we reduce our profit margins and we expose ourselves to inclement weather events that can negatively affect our revenue streams."
He said if they looked at the ticket sales with the rates from the 2017 event, the revenue would have been about $69,000 higher.
The worldwide audience was also rising. In 2018 11.6 million people tuned in, up from 11.4 million in 2017 and 4.6 million in 2015.
Rotorua Lakes Council underwrites Crankworx to the tune of $500,000. The council did not draw on the underwrite for 2018. It also contributes $75,000 to the event.
Tibble said he didn't believe the event could continue without council support.
"I don't think we'll ever get to a point where central or local government can completely exit the relationship and maintain the event's presence here."
Tibble said the economic impact of the event was estimated to be $18.49 million since 2015.
Mayor Steve Chadwick congratulated the Crankworx team on a "phenomenal success".
The operations and monitoring committee resolved to get council staff to work with the Mountain Bike Events Limited to identify what was a sustainable level of public investment into Crankworx and report to council on how this may be best achieved.
Tibble said the organising committee would settle on a schedule for Crankworx Rotorua 2019 in the next month and release it in September with the start of a ticketing campaign.
