What will fill hole left by sevens?

A replacement for the Wellington Sevens looks likely to be a series of one-off non-sporting and music events, featuring big global acts, rather than an annual or repeatable stadium filler.

Westpac Stadium boss Shane Harmon said the writing had long been on the wall for the sevens, which generated between $15 million and $18m for the city at its height, but will now be hosted in Hamilton for the next two years.

Figures released by the stadium in February, dating from 2000 to last year, show fewer people went to traditional sports events, while the popularity of occasional and one-off events such as rock concerts and Beervana had boomed.

Harmon said he and other major players had known for about five weeks that the sevens was going to another city.

Events that would have been more lucrative and well-attended had been sidelined by the sevens, including the loss of a Chappell-Hadlee Trophy one-day cricket international to Napier, and a potential big name concert act that had been pencilled in, he said.

Attention was turning to largescale non-sporting events such as Elton John’s 2015 concert and the sold-out Edinburgh Tattoo in the summer of 2016.

Wellington promoter Phil Sprey, who has brought stars including Kiss and Bon Jovi to Wellington, said he had been working

"It's put a big hole in the events calendar.'' Concert promoter Phil Sprey

on a major annual music event with United States partners to replace the ‘‘big hole’’ left in the events calendar.

But the idea, on which he would not elaborate, had been put on hold after the announcement that Ticketmaster will control all ticket sales at the capital’s major venues – except the stadium – under a sixyear contract with the Wellington Regional Economic Development Agency (Wreda) from June.

Sprey said he had been courted by other cities and, if the Ticketmaster situation did not change, the annual music event would either not go ahead, be delayed another year, or head to another town.

He also repeated his long-held belief that Wellington needed a 12,000 to 15,000-seat covered arena to consistently attract major acts who were increasingly playing multiple nights in smaller arenas.

Wellington Mayor Justin Lester said beefing up the events calendar had become a priority over the past three years as it became clear the sevens had done its dash in the capital.

A ‘‘major stadium concert’’ featuring a global star was planned to replace the sevens next summer, while existing and new events would be bolstered to draw visitors to the city and get them to stay longer than the current average of 2.5 nights, he said.

Wellington City Council was working with the Festival of the Arts to see what could replicate the success of the Edinburgh Tattoo, while established draws such as the World of Wearable Art, Beervana and Cuba Dupa would be given prioritised funding in what Lester called the transition into the capital’s ‘‘decade of culture’’.

Meanwhile annual Matariki celebrations would be built into a nationally significant annual event while 2019’s Te Matatini kapa haka festival being hosted by Wellington in 2019 was expected to bring in up to 60,000 visitors, Lester said.