Eden Park gets ground rules on concerts
Visiting expert says Auckland venue well suited to gigs
The [UK] legislative framework is completely different from the Resource Management Act process in New Zealand.
Mark Donnelly, president, Eden Park Neighbours Association
As Eden Park fights to have up to six concerts preapproved a year, a visiting operations manager from Emirates Old Trafford cricket ground says the Auckland venue is ideally suited for big shows.
The two grounds run an exchange programme and Sarah McManus, events and project manager from the Manchester stadium, which has hosted big shows including Beyonce and Rihanna, says the key is working closely with neighbours, putting up sound barriers — and decent weather.
Last year Eden Park announced it would submit a resource consent application to stage up to six concerts a year and public notification is expected soon.
The Eden Park Trust says that applying for individual resource consents for each show takes too long, is too costly and creates too much uncertainty for music promoters.
But the push for shows — and the enthusiasm of its partner stadium — doesn’t wash with one group of neighbours fighting against the plan.
Eden Park Neighbours Association president Mark Donnelly said overseas comparisons were not valid.
“They often don’t have the same residential impact, or disruption to multiple key arterial roads and key public transport routes. But also the legislative framework is completely different from the Resource Management Act process in New Zealand.”
McManus said Emirates Old Trafford’s capacity for shows was doubled to more than 50,000 from its cricket crowds. Concerts were staged in summer and subject to certain conditions including a 10.30pm cut off.
Ground owner Lancashire Cricket was forced to defend the Rihanna and Beyonce gigs against claims they breached noise limits from residents who said they could hear the music more than 12km away, and ran over time.
While news reports from the time show the shows were within noise limits, Rihanna was on stage for eight minutes beyond the cut-off time. The cricket club said this was for safety reasons.
McManus said the ground got positive feedback as well, including from a group of friends who would party around a pizza oven on an allotment near the ground.
She said there was about a 50-50 split of residential and commercial neighbours around the ground. Donnelly said while it was difficult to compare, the ratio around Eden Park could be 90 per cent residential and 10 per cent commercial.
Another group in the area, the Eden Park Residents Association was set up 15 years ago aimed at what it says is balancing the “frequently negative” views of others.
It said late last year that in principle the association supports concerts at the park subject to appropriate noise, timing and crowd management conditions.
Besides concerts, Emirates Old Trafford is a dedicated cricket ground unlike Eden Park which hosts two main sports, rugby and cricket, and sometimes football and league.
McManus said being a one-sport ground made the job of promoting the ground attached — with its attachment to one code — easier.
The ground has a 150-bed hotel built into it and many rooms have views of the pitch. Another 100 rooms are to be added and she said it was something Eden Park should explore.
The Manchester ground has had Emirates on board as a naming sponsor since 2013, something that Eden Park — which got a $63 million bailout last year — has looked at, says its chief executive Nick Sautner.
“Eden Park has . . . explored naming rights for the stadium however it quickly became apparent that relationships with partners such as Qatar Airways, Samsung and Kia Motors deliver a greater yield.”
While there are big differences between the two venues, there are common problems around serving food and beverage quickly enough on match days, McManus says.
“Sport is difficult because you only have a certain amount of break time. Test match cricket is a lot easier because people appreciate that you’ve got the whole day. In T20 you have those few minutes between innings where everyone wants a beer, burger and to go to the toilet.”
Without an adequate serving system ratio per patron, it was difficult to reach the perfect solution.
“It’s how you manage it. Look at Disney — you still queue but you still have a great day.”