Otago Rugby Going Broke

The ODT reports that Otago Rugby lost $0.75 million last year. The Union's income has reduced by more than $1 million a year, as crowds have dwindled over the last few years. The disappointing attendance of 7,500 for the recent Highlanders game continues this trend. And the appointment of an Australian coach instead of local legend, David Latta, is not likely to inspire loyalty from fans.
Otago Rugby was lucky to be bailed out by the City Council's purchase of Carisbrook for a very generous price of $7 million. But a business cannot carry on making losses every year. The Dunedin City Council has guaranteed Otago Rugby's overdraft, and there is a real risk that this guarantee will be called upon.
And, of course, the Stadium is relying on Rugby for a major share of it's income. Only the top seven teams in this year's National Championship will be in the top division in 2011. Otago finished seventh last year. The Stadium may have to attract crowds with a second-division team team.

Big Rates Rises Postponed In Election Years

The ODT has an interesting editorial today, "A spendthrift tendency", showing that the Dunedin City Council has smaller rates rises in election years and large rates rises in in-between years:

• 1997 4.9%
  
• 1998 2.5% election
  
• 1999 5.7%
  
• 2000 5.1%
• 2001 2.9% election
• 2002 1.9%
• 2003 2.9%
  
• 2004 2.8% election
• 2005 8.5%
• 2006 5.5%
  
• 2007 6.4% election
• 2008 10.4%
  
• 2009 7.0%
• 2010 5.2% election this year
  
• 2011 8.9% next year
  

The ODT calculates that:

Over these 15 years, the average rates increase after an election is 7.08%, in election year the average is 3.96%, and the figure for the middle year is 5.08%.

This trend is certainly confirmed this year when the "reduction" in the size of this year's proposed increase, is clawed back by increases in the size of rises in future years.
The Council is taking voters for mugs and hoping that they have short memories.
In the October election, we will see if they are right.

Sevens Would Cause Riots In Dunedin

New Zealand's leading blogger, David Farrar of Kiwiblog, claims that the International Sevens Rugby tournament, which is currently held in Wellington, could not be held in Dunedin because it would cause rioting.

Students (and others) in Dunedin start burning couches and generally rioting after just a couple of hours of drinking. You’d have to be mad to want to host a game which is basically two days of non-stop drinking rugby.

I am not sure how serious the post is, but he may have a point. How will liquor sales at the Stadium fit with in with the University's current clampdown on alcohol use?

ODT Blocks Access To CST Criticism

Yesterday's front-page lead story in the Otago Daily Times, "Further $1.8m for stadium", is no longer available on the ODT web-site, with "Access Denied" displayed instead:
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/91669/further-18-million-stadium
If this block is due to lawyers trying to stop criticism of the Carisbrook Stadium Trust, then that will become a story in itself.
UPDATED
I emailed the ODT and asked for an explanation for the "Access Denied", but I have not had a reply.
The story is back on-line with "a clarification" that the actual extra amount is $1.639. This small error does seem to be enough to explain the "Access Denied".
In a related story, it is claimed that the oversight was not the responsibility of the Carisbrook Stadium Trust, but of the Dunedin City Council.

"It was never the responsibility of the trust," [CST chairman, Malcom Farry] said. The trust had been asked to plan and build the stadium, but not to run it once that was done.

This is nonsense: the CST was responsible for projections of income and expenditure for the Stadium, which were produced at considerable expense to Dunedin rate-payers. Opponents of the Stadium claimed that costing were being kept unrealistically low to boost the case to go ahead. It is now clear that they were correct.