Auckland interested in hosting sevens
The Wellington Sevens could relocate to Auckland when the city loses the Nines to Australia.
Although there is a contract for the Nines to return in 2018, it is almost certain that the NRL’S Nines tournament will move to the other side of the Tasman, possibly as early as next year.
Brett O’riley, CEO for Auckland Tourism Events and Economic Development (Ateed), an arm of the Auckland Council, said he would look at the possibility of bringing the Sevens to Eden Park when the Nines goes.
‘‘We’re always interested in new events, so I’d have to say yes,’’ O’riley said, when asked if he was interested in the Sevens. ‘‘I haven’t really thought about it to date, but we would be interested.’’
Crowds at the Wellington Sevens continue to drop each year, with just 18,000 spectators at this year’s event over the weekend.
New Zealand Rugby are examining what to do with the sevens, but there aren’t many other options in New Zealand on where to take it.
Christchurch doesn’t have a stadium to accommodate fans over two long days and it’s questionable whether Dunedin or Hamilton would be able to bring in enough fans.
While Auckland had the Nines, it took the city out of the running for the Sevens, but that could soon change.
‘‘It’s not something we’d contemplate until 2019,’’ O’riley said. ‘‘But we’d have to be open-minded about anyone suggesting anything to us.’’
While Wellingtonians have lost interest in the sevens, the success of the Sydney tournament this weekend shows that as a sporting spectacle it can still be successful when taken to a new market.
There doesn’t seem to be too many tears being shed that the Nines will leave Auckland and O’riley said he didn’t want it to end up like the Sevens has in Wellington. He is also buoyed by recent conversations with the NRL, about bring a State of Origin game to Auckland and Kiwis v Kangaroos tests.
Ateed and Duco Events took a punt on creating the Nines tournament from nothing and O’riley says the NRL haven’t forgotten that.
‘‘They acknowledge the work we’ve done to develop the event, both us and Duco,’’ he said.
‘‘They also acknowledge Auckland and New Zealand as a market for them.
‘‘It’s a dual-edged sword though, because you look at the impact of event fatigue on something like the [Wellington] Sevens.
"It's a dual-edged sword though, because you look at the impact of event fatigue on something like the [Wellington] Sevens." Brett O'riley, Ateed CEO
‘‘In a way, be careful what you wish for, because we’ve had four fantastic years of the Nines and I’m sure we’ll have a fifth fantastic year next year.
‘‘But we also need to think if this is the only rugby league content we want long-term, because we could see the nines go away for a few years and then come back.
‘‘If rugby league fans had a choice one year of the Nines or a State of Origin, what would they want?
‘‘But it [the Nines] is at a really busy time for the city and we would be open-minded about what alternatives there are in the future, because I wouldn’t want my replacement sitting here in 10 years time, saying ‘if only we would have decided after five years to give it a rest, because there are a smaller group of people watching it, because people have got sick of it.’’’
‘‘I don’t think there is any possibility that we would lose the Nines and not have something to replace it with.’’