Auckland businesses are attempting to attract more visitors, particularly from across the Tasman. Photo:
Most events on the diary until then were postponed due to Covid-19, and a lack of big events to attract people to Auckland is worrying those planning the city's recovery.
Tātaki Auckland Unlimited is an Auckland Council agency - but the message from mayor Wayne Brown is clear: that it was on its own.
The mayor said he was pleasantly surprised at the agency's commitment to "doing more with less".
He said the city could not buy economic growth with ratepayers' money.
Tātaki Auckland Unlimited head of major events Chris Simpson said there was just under $2m in the kitty for events, and it was once again holding out its hand to the private sector.
"We've got a wonderful events portfolio up until the end of 2023 [early 2024] and then not much after that. That $1.8m will help us next year but what we're talking about now is what's the long term financial funding model."
Its $7m from the government's Regional Events Fund, in place until December 2024, is about to run dry.
Charged with minimising dependency on Auckland ratepayers, Tātaki Auckland Unlimited is exploring funding models, including with the private sector.
"There is no one solution to the financial challenges that the events sector is facing - it will take support from a range of industry partners and local and central government to ensure Auckland remains competitive in the international market and secures and develops world-class events for our region and New Zealand," Simpson said.
Eight years ago he was part of the team that successfully bid for Auckland to host the FIFA Women's World Cup next year.
Bidding for major events happens years in advance - and it costs.
"How long's a piece of string? I mean the Aussies are putting in $150m but we know that that's not realistic. We're conservatively looking at needing around $20m a year and that would mean that we can build a robust major events portfolio."
He was concerned that the city's annual events could also fall off the calendar in 2024 if funding was not available - such as the country's premier tennis tournament, the ASB Classic.
Auckland businesses have just contributed $200,000 to help plaster over a hole in the organisation's marketing budget.
Heart of the City chief executive Viv Beck Photo: Supplied / HOTC
Auckland's city centre business association, Heart of the City, helps to promote events and its chief executive Viv Beck is back in the role after bowing out of the mayoral campaign.
"These events that we're seeing now they've been a long time in the planning. You don't just click your fingers and get these events, particularly when other cities are bidding too and are active and are in a better position than us to bid."
She said an empty diary from 2024 is of great concern.
"The fact that there isn't sufficient funding to bid for events or in fact to position our city internationally to attract people is a major problem," Beck said.
"I think it's urgent and we will notice a difference if we can't address this quickly."
This weekend the International Working Group on women in sport holds its world conference in Auckland - it was bid for five years ago, the pitch jointly funded by Tātaki Auckland Unlimited, Tourism NZ and the Auckland Convention Bureau.
It is Women in Sport's first foray into hosting a big international event and chief executive Rachel Frogatt is concerned small non-profit organisations won't have the same opportunitiy if funding is dominated by the private sector.
"There is a potential for it to cut out little guys like myself. Women in Sport Aotearoa is quite a small charity, if it moves to a model that's servicing high end business for example, or is being funded by high end business, does it allow Aotearoa New Zealand to have diversity of different events?"
She said Tātaki Auckland Unlimited's role in developing a pipeline of events needed to be well-funded.
Whatever the answer, Simpson said they don't want 2024 to be the year of no events.
"It's a concern for everyone because I think at the end of the day major events are intrinsically part of New Zealand's psyche ... it lifts the nation, it financially supports the nation, we just need to apply that long term planning and if we don't come up with a solution soon it is concerning."
He said Tātaki Auckland Unlimited had invested $4.8m to host 10 events in the past three months, which together injected $18.7m into the region's economy, benefiting a wide range of businesses.
Simpson said upcoming summer events including concerts and sports tournaments had funding confirmed before the pandemic.
"We will have gaps in the calendar if we don't secure the required funding to support our major and business events portfolio beyond next year."
He said the organisation planned to decide on a new funding model for events and put it in place early 2023.