Herald on Sunday editorial: Here's to creators of good fun

Dean Lonergan (left) and David Higgins of Duco Events. Photo . Doug Sherrings

Opinion

Event organisers are not everyone's heroes though they should be. They take enormous risks for the sake of giving thousands of people a good time, and making some money, of course. But there must be less stressful ways of making a buck.

There is never a guarantee an event will succeed. The former Auckland Regional Council thought it had a sure-fire winner with a charity football match featuring David Beckham a few years ago. We all know what happened.

Next weekend Auckland will host an event new to this country, a tournament featuring all the NRL teams playing nine-a-side. Its a form of rugby league few have seen, yet already it is putting a buzz about the town.

Eden Park is almost sold out, the city's hotels are booking out. The Nines have captured the imagination of league fans in Australia, promising a festival like Wellington's rugby sevens before the game's serious season begins.

Yet there were plenty of doubters when the Auckland Nines was conceived by Duco partners Dean Lonergan and David Higgins, previously known for boxing promotions in the city. Those were risky ventures too, as they recall in their profile by Susan Edmund we have published today.

Image 1 of 10: People who know the two promoters say David Higgins, right, is a good control, keeping Dean Lonergan, left, in line when he gets carried away. Photo / Doug Sherring

Higgins arranged the David Tua - Shane Cameron fight for pay-per-view television and says he woke up on the day of the bout facing a $500,000 loss. It was only that day that viewers began to buy the fight in the numbers he was counting on. By the end of the evening the event had made $1.5 million.

Lonergan, of course, cut his promotional teeth on the Fight for Life events featuring celebrity bouts between hurriedly-trained amateurs, often his old league team mates against a sacrificial lamb from rugby union. It is all good fun and most people appreciate it.

For their $7.5m investment in the Auckland Nines Lonergan and Higgins have been promised $12m of public money for the event over the next five years. That is a considerable vote of confidence in them by the Auckland Council's agency, "Ateed", Auckland Tourism Events and Economic Development.

We can only hope the Nines sustain their appeal for at least five years. Previous rugby league ventures in seven and nine player formats have not lasted that long, though most of them involved national teams rather than NRL clubs. The only previous NRL Nines tournament was in Sydney which is home to most of the clubs. The novelty of having all the teams in Auckland will be a treat.

But to establish an annual event will require more than the promoters effort. Aucklanders will need to provide it with a good spirit as rugby fans so when they go to the Wellington Sevens at this time every year.

For all their sustained success, the Sevens crowd has come in for criticism over the past year or two. Besides the fun and fancy dress there is reportedly a level of drunkenness that does the patrons no credit. Lonergan and Higgins know their clientele and they know that league crowds in Eden Park have been a problem previously. It is not their stadium of choice. It is the stadium Ateed wants to see used to its capacity as often as possible. It must have been heartened to see the park filled for one-day cricket again when the Black Caps played India recently.

The Nines have already succeeded on ticket sales for next weekend. Now Lonergan and Higgins will know what they need to have done to ensure the crowd control is right, the ground entertainment hits the right notes and the match schedule can sustain interest. They have done well to create another event for Auckland.