It’s been interesting to see the Queensland and NSW governments played off against each other by NRL boss Peter V’landys.
The Courier Mail reported the NRL would make $10 million in revenue if the Grand Final was played at Suncorp Stadium, compared to $7 million if it was held in Sydney.
The NSW government also offered a last ditch offer of $8 million a year for Accor Stadium to host the grand final for the next 20 years.
“We put a very fair and reasonable offer to the NRL in relation to keeping the grand final,” NSW Premier Perrottet told The Courier Mail.
“That is commercially in confidence. It is probably not as much as Queensland have offered but it is more than we have paid in the past.”
I get the crowing rights for Queensland, but both NSW and Qld are facing a pile of debt from the pandemic along with floods, businesses suffering from interest rate hikes and ongoing costs. Is this the best use of taxpayer’s money when other sectors are desperate for support?
It seems yet again the Business Events sector has no worthwhile relationship with any state government despite a key thing we learnt from covid was that the power rests within the states. Clearly Business Events are not high on the state’s agendas to compete for, unlike in Europe and the USA where they actively sponsor and chase hosting rights of major Business Events.
I note that some states have bureaus that chase international conventions, but surely the management within these organisations can see it’s the local market that will drive the recovery and the use of the facilities purpose built for Business Events.
Whilst the Premiers may boast how many people will fly in to watch the game and the financial benefit that will flow, there are some points…
The game is 80 minutes
I would imagine only around 30% of the live attendance is from interstate.
Other than the television coverage stating we are at xxx stadium the host state of field, the only way the host state gets greater reach is on top of the payment to the NRL by spending more on advertising the destination.
The host city gets a sugar hit to restaurants, hotels, taxis etc for possibly two or maybe three days.
Compare that to business events…
Dwell time at business events vary, but are generally far longer.
People who travel to events include service providers, exhibitors, sponsors and buyers and all spend a number days on site.
Event organisers promote the host city and its attractions.
People who visit from interstate normally stay for days either side for business meetings and for leisure. A number of events have pre or post event famils and or holiday options which sport doesn’t. Business Events people stay in hotels, use taxis, entertain in restaurants, engage local trades etc.
Our impact on businesses in the state where an event is held has a long lasting tail and provides a lot of ongoing financial benefit.
There are numerous points I have not detailed but the key take out is why the business events sector are not being taken as seriously, why don’t we have strong state based relationships.
Unless our industry associations can get their act together and get a decent single voice to state and federal governments sport will continue to get the lion’s share of event funding to our detriment.
I think your commentary raises a bigger issue of the transparency and the independent verification of the costs and benefits of any events.
Thanks Garry whilst I am not exactly sure what you mean as in all events need independent verification as they fall into two categories I do believe any event that receive Govt Financial support should 100% have to disclose all show expenditure and benefits tax payers receive as its our money and we are therefore shareholders in the sponsored event and how it was used and justified In the exhibition arena outside of some covid sponsorship exhibitions are 100% owned and ran at risk of the organiser so obviously they don’t need to justify what they spend. I think a important point I missed is Business events also use a lot of hotel, catering and workforce during the week when they need it, the sports sponsored are predominantly the weekends which pushes costs up. As a further point the whole industry nationally only received $35 million in support after being totally closed down during covid and it seems only from what we can piece together $20 million _$25 million was only ever used and again Austrade have never disclosed what actually was used and the new minister despite attempts to ask to review as it was something he raised when in opposition has done nothing!!!! It would be great to see if NSW Govt do any analysis of what 80 minutes delivered to the tax payers of NSW. It would even be better if the whole business sector had better support across all parts not just international conventions.
Great commentary Gary. There is no question that business events draw high numbers of interstate visitors to the capital cities every single week. And it is the local events that provide the regular activity rather than international ones that drop occasionally and draw all the government attention. Overseas the cities chase this business and subsidise venue costs. It would be good to see more support here.