Queenstown event likely to reach greater audience.
Picking winners is always a fraught proposition. It is, therefore, hardly surprising that, from time to time, Government money supplied through the Major Events Development Fund will be the subject of controversy. This week, that has centred on the $2 million of taxpayer funding allotted to a pro-am golf tournament in Queenstown hosted by rich-lister Sir Michael Hill over the past three years, while an application for half that sum to help establish the NRL Auckland Nines was denied.
The relative success of the two events - the Nines proved an outstanding success, while the golf tournament has stuttered along - may suggest that support was misplaced but is not the yardstick by which this funding should be judged.
The key point for the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment when assessing applications must be the economic return generated by the event. In large part, that is about how effectively it publicises this country. Golf has the potential to do that more effectively than league because it is a major international sport and especially popular in Asia.
Michael Glading, the tournament director for the New Zealand Open, may have been overstating matters when he said a one-hour highlights package of the event had screened throughout Asia and on planes to "huge audiences". Further, celebrities such as former Australian cricketers mean nothing in that part of the world. For such reasons, close attention should be paid to the performance targets attached to the funding. Nonetheless, the ministry was entitled to see greater potential merit in the golf than the Nines.
