Auckland Council is scrambling to secure major events with a temporary $30m fund, as the mayor and PM lock horns over whether hotel guests should be asked to pay up, writes Catherine McGregor in today’s extract from The Bulletin.
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Council seeks stopgap solution on events funding
Auckland Council meets today to decide whether to underwrite a $30 million fund that would allow the city to bid for and secure major events with long lead times. Council staff warn that without such a facility, Auckland risks losing high-value fixtures to rival Australasian cities. The proposal, capped at $10m annually, is designed as a stopgap, providing financial certainty for the council’s economic development agency, Tātaki Auckland Unlimited, while longer-term funding solutions are debated.
“The fund would allow Auckland to bid for and agree to events that require six or more years’ lead time, like the FIFA Women’s World Cup,” reports The Post’s Amelia Wade (paywalled), or events with shorter lead times that require a quick verbal commitment, “for example US country singer Luke Combs’ concert at Eden Park”. It’s not a full solution, but the report to council argues it is necessary to keep Auckland competitive until a sustainable funding model is in place.
Brown and Luxon clash over the bed levy
That model, in mayor Wayne Brown’s view, is a bed levy – essentially a nightly surcharge of 2.5–3% on hotel stays, a system used in cities from Berlin to San Francisco. Brown says such a levy could raise around $27m annually, enough to potentially bring back blockbuster events such as Taylor Swift concerts or State of Origin matches. He has been scathing of central government’s resistance, accusing prime minister Christopher Luxon of deliberately framing the levy as a “bed tax” in order to reject it.
Luxon insists Auckland has “plenty of money” and argues the council can reprioritise spending or borrow against its balance sheet rather than seek new revenue tools. But while the prime minister remains firmly opposed to a levy, he did tell Mike Hosking this week that he has asked tourism minister Louise Upston for a “total rethink” of major events, hinting at some acknowledgement of the hospitality industry’s frustration.
Taylor Swift highlights Auckland’s events gap
The urgency is underscored by the grim state of Auckland’s live music scene. On the same day Taylor Swift confirmed her engagement to NFL star Travis Kelce, music writer Chris Schulz delivered a blow to local fans: Swift is unlikely to ever return to New Zealand. In a column for The Spinoff (republished from his own Substack), Schulz noted that “this December, across just one week, Melbourne will enjoy more music festivals and stadium concerts than Auckland will get in the entirety of 2025”. Major acts have been drifting away from Auckland for years now, and reversing the trend “is going to take a co-ordinated, consolidated, multi-pronged approach” – starting with recognising the importance of major concerts and festivals to the economic and cultural life of the city.
Hotels not sold on an Auckland-only levy
Where does the accommodation sector stand? Many hotel executives say they are not opposed to a levy in principle, but only if it applies nationwide rather than singling out Auckland. James Doolan of Hotel Council Aotearoa has been especially critical of Brown’s push, penning a column in the Herald accusing the council of crying poor while sitting on “rivers of incoming cash”. Brown might extol its virtues, but “an Auckland-only bed tax is simply not supported by anyone who matters in the accommodation sector,” he says.
Instead, Doolan urges the mayor to restore events funding to pre-Covid levels using existing revenue streams and by cutting “wasteful spending”, or to collaborate with central government on a sustainable national approach. With Brown and Luxon still at loggerheads, Auckland’s ability to compete with Sydney or Melbourne for major spectacles remains very much in doubt.
