Stand by for Auckland's biggest ever year of events

Monday, 19 November 2018

Auckland will host the America's Cup in the summer of 2021, kicking off a bumper year of events in the City of Sails.

OPINION: No New Zealand city, or even the country, has had a year like Auckland has lined up for 2021.

Four international sporting tournaments, the geopolitical behemoth that is the APEC leaders' meeting, and a fast-growing Māori cultural showpiece are all on the cards.

The pre-2021 scrub-up is also unprecedented with billions of dollars of private and public development set to transform the lower inner city.

The America's Cup kicks off the New Year and rolls through to March.

**READ MORE:

* Road to the Cup: Auckland's multi-billion dollar downtown waterfront makeover

* Not coming to a town near you: 2021 Women's Rugby World Cup

* Ateed behind plans to bring back WRC Rally New Zealand**

In the same period, there's a share of the Women's Cricket World Cup, the men's Softball World Cup, and kapa haka's Te Matatini Festival in February.

Just when things could go quiet in the winter, there's the Womens' Rugby World Cup in July-August, coming south of the equator for the first time.

US President Bill Clinton was the rockstar leader at APEC in Auckland in 1999 and returned to the city in 2002.

Filling the pre-Christmas Void, the APEC leaders' meeting will bring 10,000 delegates and media to the city, including US President Donald Trump – or whoever may succeed him.

Not everyone's going to fancy every event.

The America's Cup is either (a) New Zealand world-class sailors showcasing one of the country's highest-tech design and manufacturing outfits (Team New Zealand), or (b) a bunch of rich boys and their toys, depending on your view.

At the low end of forecasts, the America's Cup is expected to add $1.9 million of employment in Auckland in 2021 alone, $3.2 million if you add the run-up year.

The Women's Rugby World Cup will bring an overall economic boost of $3.6 million to Auckland, with games spread across two venues and a third in Whangarei.

The city, mostly the downtown area, will look very different by 2021 with more than $2 billion worth of private and public sector construction on buildings and amenities near the waterfront.

Behind the hype, Auckland's leaders and agencies need to ensure the involvement and benefits are spread as widely as possible.

APEC is almost hermetically sealed off because of security around world leaders, and the smaller sporting events like the softball may not make a big splash.

But it will be inexcusable if at the end of 2021, criticism can be levelled that opportunities were missed to connect Aucklanders, from all parts of the city, to both the buzz and the jobs that came.

Hosting the pinnacle women's tournaments of the country's biggest sporting codes should also be a lever to close the gaps with their equivalent men's competitions.

An emerging downside might be the risk of 'publicly-funded-event envy' from the rest of the country.

That's already emerged over the Women's Rugby World Cup not emulating the nationwide hosting format of the 2011 men's event.

Each event has ended up partly or wholly in Auckland for its own reasons.

The WRWC drew a record 45,412 spectators in Ireland last year, a record that Auckland can smash just by selling out the final at Eden Park in 2021.

Sometimes staging an international event in a place that 35 per cent of the country's population can reach with a train or bus commute just makes plain sense.

The 'drive zone' extends the catchment to 2.24 million, or 50 per cent of the country's population.

And Aucklanders will undoubtedly welcome those from other areas to show that not everything that's said about the big smoke is true – apart from the traffic and the cost of housing.