Rowing: Bail-out keeps rowing afloat

Single Sculler Mahe Drysdale. Photo / Christine Cornege

Rowing New Zealand and its subsidiary company Karapiro 2010 Ltd have earned a reprieve from the Bank of New Zealand (BNZ) to help them service a $2.3 million loss from the world championships at Lake Karapiro in October and November.

Those running the country's most successful current Olympic sport have been stung by the shortfall - which they put down to poor attendance on finals weekend.

Up to 20,000 were predicted but only around 10,000 turned up to watch New Zealand's most prolific world championship medal haul - nine in the able-bodied classes and one in the adaptive.

Rowing New Zealand chief executive Simon Peterson, says they were expecting grim news after seeing gaps in the stands and on the embankment, but had to wait until foreign exchange figures were clear.

"We have to live with it, it feels very real right now and every day we're incurring interest - but we're searching for help from our event partners, the Waipa District Council and Hamilton City Council. They earned what is estimated as a $14.8 million economic benefit from the event through visitor investment.

"Fortunately, the BNZ has serviced the debt for now by paying all our creditors on Tuesday such as the bus company, the caterers and the grandstand providers."

It has been reported 80 per cent of services were provided by local businesses. The Government is also expected to help with $500,000 - the remaining money is being sought from local councils as bid partners.

"The upside is the on-water results were greater than expected and a small consolation was that customer surveys ranked us 9.2 out of 10 for service," Peterson said, confirming they would not be asking the rowing community for further funds by topping up annual subscriptions.

Peterson added that the Sparc high-performance funding of $4.32m for this year and next is ring-fenced and cannot be touched.

While a poor financial outcome, investment in hosting the world championships holds intangible merits.

Rowing New Zealand is banking on its racing efforts at future world champs and the London Olympics to claw back the shortfall in later years through sponsorship and further Sparc funding.

It is also hoped the success achieved at the championships will attract more people to participate in rowing.