Helen Clark on the case for hosting the America’s Cup in New Zealand

Sunday, 20 October 2024

Former Prime Minister Helen Clark says the case for public funding to host a future America’s Cup is as strong as when her government was a significant backer.

Clark’s Labour-led coalition sponsored Team New Zealand’s 2007 challenge with $36 million, to use the event in Valencia, Spain to showcase the country and industry.

She is now the team’s patron and has called on the public and private sector to jointly make a bid for hosting in Auckland.

Clark spoke to Stuff in Barcelona, where Team New Zealand has defended the cup, the first time it granted the hosting to an overseas city in order to gain a cash injection.

“The (New Zealand) deal on the table in 2021 was not enough both to win and to host the cup,” said Clark, of the $99 million offer, including $30 million of cash for the event.

“They probably could have hosted but it would have been a losing bid,” said Clark.

Clark said the arguments for using the cup and the team to promote Aotearoa, and high-value industry sectors, is as strong as it was in the past.

“New Zealand still has far too commodity dependent an economy. What we're seeing with the technology that our people are putting into these incredible yachts is New Zealand leading edge in design and tech,” she said.

“That's an image we need out there so that we can get serious investment into our economy and the really high value areas.”

An economic impact assessment found the government’s investment over the four-year Cup cycle, added an extra $62-74 million to gross domestic product (GDP).

The sponsorship was again committed in 2007 for the team’s challenge in San Francisco in 2013, despite Clark’s government losing the 2008 election to National.

The John Key-led government considered breaking the sponsorship commitment, according to the acting Minister for Economic Development David Carter.

'We gave that a brief bit of thought. The advice we got was legally, there was no opportunity to get out of it,“ Carter said at the time.

Clark did not accept that politically it would be difficult today to justify public money for a hosting bid.

“You have to put the economic case and that's the benefit to New Zealand,” she said.

“When I went as PM to Valencia and we funded that bid very substantially, the companies were there, the New Zealand Trade and Enterprise functions we were all over it, as a government with advantage for New Zealand,” she said.

“My view was the last government should have done better and obviously any government of New Zealand should be stumping up for the incredible profile this gives.”

The government and Auckland Council, which jointly made the unsuccessful offer for the 37th Cup, have sidestepped questions about whether they might bid again.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, however, did not want to “jinx” Team New Zealand by speculating on the issue, he told Stuff before the outcome of the America’s Cup was known.

Helen Clark and her then America’s Cup minister Trevor Mallard have remained strong supporters of the team, and both are in Barcelona in a private capacity.

Team New Zealand want to move quickly on the future and host the 38th cup in as little as two years time. Clark said New Zealand would have to be quick.

“If New Zealand basically stuffs around and thinks ‘on the one hand this and the other side that’, forget it.”