Sevens: FIELD OF DREAMS
Hamilton is the new home of the Sevens. The main players speak to Florence Kerr and Donna-Lee Biddle.
At her humble Dinsdale home, on her humble Dinsdale couch, looking at her humble Acer laptop, Hamilton grandmother Shelly zeroes in on a friend’s Facebook post.
‘‘Hamilton is the new home of the Sevens,’’ her friend proclaimed.
It was Monday morning and Shelly hadn’t had her coffee hit yet. The 30-year veteran of city council rules and regulations felt the anger spread.
‘‘F...,’’ she said aloud as she smashed the keys on her keyboard in response. ‘‘Not another V8 f...-up.’’ That’s despite assurances from Hamilton City Mayor Andrew King and Sevens bid-winner 37 South managing director Dallas Fisher both stating it won’t cost ratepayers a cent.
Shelly, who doesn’t want her surname used, is unconvinced about the tournament being moved from Wellington to Hamilton.
‘‘I remember that council saying the V8s were only going to cost us about $7 mill.
‘‘Pfft. Like my great nephew says: Nek minit.’’
The Hamilton 400 V8 Supercars – which Hamilton City Council financially backed – would end up costing ratepayers more than $35 million.
The Sevens will be funded through Hamilton events company 37 South, which has financial backers, according to its managing director. Hamilton City Council will provide the stadium. That’s it, Fisher said.
New Zealand Rugby, alongside 37 South and the council, made the Sevens announcement at Waikato Stadium on Monday morning. There was champagne and cake.
While many from around the country applauded the Sevens move to Hamilton, memories of the V8 fiasco came bubbling to the surface for Shelly and a number of other Hamilton ratepayers.
King says lessons have been learnt from the V8 saga. He promises mistakes won’t be repeated.
‘‘Fundamentally, should government, should councils, be involved in things that are outside of their core services [such as] roads, rubbish and water?
‘‘Sure, we’ve got to provide facilities, but should we be involved in actually running the events? I say no and that’s where I believe [the V8s] went wrong. We should not have been a financial partner in it.
‘‘Once councils get involved in things that are not core services, that’s when things go wrong.
‘‘There’s no risk to the ratepayers in this (the Sevens).
‘‘In this case, we are going in with a proven partner, with 37 South, Dallas [Fisher]. We know their track record, we know they’re very good, we know they’re very well known around town and they have a good reputation. So the partner is key to this as well.’’
Except that 37 South hasn’t got a track record.
This is the newly formed company’s first big gig, with promises of more to come.
It’s the managing director, Dallas Fisher, who has the track record.
Fisher is managing director of Montana Catering, a successful business which, according to its website, is the exclusive caterer for FMG Stadium Waikato, Seddon Park Cricket Ground, Founders Theatre, Claudelands Event Centre and Grandstand Claudelands.
Montana also catered food for the Hamilton 400 V8 Supercars, the Rhythm and Vines Festival in Gisborne and the Waikato Business Awards.
Fisher is also chairman of the Chiefs franchise.
‘‘If you’ve looked at the positive comments we have had from everyone around New Zealand, if we didn’t have a reputation of being able to put on a good event, I bet it would have been negative. And it hasn’t,’’ Fisher said.
‘‘It has been bloody overwhelmingly positive. We’ve had people showing interest in 37 South’s ability to put these things together.
‘‘The final structure for 37 South will be revealed in July.
‘‘37 South was still being formed when everything [the Sevens] was happening. It happened very quickly. There’s no mystery. We just have to do a couple of formal things to tidy up.’’
King, himself, is a bit hazy on details, but he believes in Fisher.
‘‘I understand there are another half-a-dozen shareholders, but I don’t know who they are.
‘‘Nobody knows that stadium from the private sector more than Dallas.
‘‘He’s New Zealand’s biggest caterer. He really is a big player. He’s not just a Hamilton player.
‘‘This is a little like the story when New Zealand Rugby won the World Cup rights and they basically sold it on culture, nature and our friendly people. I believe this is a similar sort of thing.
‘‘That’s us punching well above our weight. You’ve got to give credit to New Zealand Rugby, but also Dallas Fisher. Dallas goes across many boundaries. He is the chair of the Chiefs as well as a businessman who performs well in our city.’’
Fisher understands why ratepayers fear the worst, but wants to make clear, again that it won’t cost them a cent.
‘‘I think there are two parts to that. The big issue with the V8s was that council made a significant investment in its infrastructure. What’s the number? Tens of millions? And didn’t get the return. That was a problem. Council’s not investing in any new infrastructure for the Sevens,’’ Fisher said.
‘‘I think on an events basis – [and] I’m deeply in the events sector – if you look at what we’ve done in the last five years, and dare I say it, Fieldays, we forget how big Fieldays is. It happens every year and it’s successful.
‘‘We’ve had the cricket world cup, we’ve had 25,000 capacity rugby events, we’ve had some other really big cricket games and, when you think about Hamilton’s reputation to put an event on, with our skills, and our resources, I think we are good at it.
‘‘We can put on very good events. We’ve got the infrastructure already, so the reputational thing is actually about the investment in the V8s didn’t work out, as opposed to actually holding an event. See the difference?
‘‘I think it was tarnished locally with the ratepayers and the investment didn’t produce what it said it was going to produce. I think the event’s reputation within Hamilton city was tarnished and rather appropriately so.’’
King believes the reputation of the city has not been marred by the V8 fiasco and insists it will not be Hamilton’s reputation on the line if the Sevens event goes bellyup – but he’s adamant it won’t.
‘‘New Zealand Rugby’s reputation is the one that’s on the line here and they’ve obviously talked enough with 37 South to have faith and are confident and comfortable this will work.’’
Hamilton City Council’s only involvement would be giving the stadium over to the ‘‘trusted’’ hands of Fisher and his yet-to-befinalised board.
‘‘Utilising an asset that would have been sitting there dormant and remember, the business groups are paying for all the costs to clean the stadium up, the security, any of the costs associated – the business group is covering, not the council. All the council has done is made the facility available,’’ King said.
‘‘The V8s? It was a political decision to shut the V8s down. It was a new business venture. To be fair, we possibly didn’t choose the right partners to start with, but sometimes with a business, it takes time for it to work through
and make a return and whether it was given the time it needed, I don’t know.’’
Humble Shelly still isn’t buying it.
‘‘I want to trust that this is what’s happening, but when you’ve been lied to before, it’s hard. The proof will come after the event,’’ she said.
Head of Waikato Hospital’s emergency department, Dr John Bonning, also plans to hold Fisher to his word.
‘‘We’re gonna hold them to the task on a sensible alcohol policy,’’ Bonning says.
‘‘I know people like Dallas Fisher pretty well, so there’s talk of the two alcohol-free zones. There’s talk of having wrist bands that people load money on to to purchase merchandise and alcohol at the grounds.
‘‘So there’s certainly discussion of sensible alcohol policies and we are very much wanting to make sure that they adhere to what has been discussed.
‘‘Prevention is best, so that means regulating the amount of alcohol people consume. So Joe Bloggs, who has had his 10th beer, that will be monitored on his wrist band and they can say, well, no, you’ve had too much beer.’’
Bonning says the reason the Sevens fell apart in Wellington was that it got ‘‘too boozed’’.
‘‘I think it was the too-much alcohol that killed it in the first place and then the regulation came in afterwards,’’ he says.
‘‘It’s a great event and it’s a great idea to have it in Hamilton.’’
Waikato Police operations support manager Inspector Karen Henrikson says there hasn’t been much planning as yet because police have to get through the next big events, including the Lions tour and the Rugby League World Cup.
‘‘We’re treating it as just another big event, but we’ll be putting a lot of substantial planning into it,’’ Henrikson says.
She is of the same opinion as Bonning and says that whatever happened in Wellington, with that city’s boozy culture, will not necessarily be replicated in Hamilton.
‘‘We host a lot of big events and we haven’t really had that issue with that boozy type of culture,’’ she says.
‘‘You hear the term ‘fun police’, but it’s about making sure that the small number of people don’t ruin it for everyone else.
‘‘We get a bit tied up in the alcohol, but it’s about the sports event.’’
In her humble Dinsdale home, Shelly has stopped tapping on her computer keyboard.
She, too, is worried about the binge-drinking culture.
‘‘Will there be drunk kids running riot, like in Wellington? I don’t want that.
‘‘I hear what they’re saying, but words mean nothing after the V8 stuff-up.
‘‘I live in a humble home and I have humble things. I just can’t afford to pay for something extravagant. The V8s really did my head in.’’