Panuku's Consideration of Bermuda

This posting is about the hosting of the America's Cup event in Bermuda. It provides an insight into an approachto hosting  that can be adopted by a country that decides to have the best event possible, but with minimum impact on the local community and its amenities.

While I accept that Oracle chose Bermuda, and that a future syndicate might not choose Bermuda again, there is never any certainty as to which syndicate will win any America's Cup regatta, nor where a winning syndicate will choose to locate any future regatta.

If you read the report and minutes of Auckland Council's governing body December 14th meeting where Councillors decided to run with the Halsey and Hobson wharf extension option to host the 2021 America's Cup defence syndicate hosting, you will see that Council delegated decision-making for the necessary resource consenting to Phil Goff (the Mayor) and Stephen Town (CEO). Council CCO Panuku has been involved in the background providing information and advice for some time. Panuku has been given responsibility for preparing the necessary resource consent documents. It appears the application will be notified at the end of this month. The documents are available here. Further documents relating to consents needed to enable the relocation of Sealink and fishing industry are available here.

This picture shows a major part of the America's Cup village in Bermuda. It's on a reclamation that had been built as part of the US military base infrastructure that once dominated Bermuda. There's a very interesting history of that occupation and use including maps and pictures here.

You can see an Emirates Team NZ (ETNZ) boat at the right of the picture in the water adjacent to the ETNZ syndicate base.

An account is given of ETNZ's perspective and experience of this America's Cup base in Panuku's "Consideration of Alternatives" report here (this is an attachment to this summary) which is part of the suite of documents accompanying the resource consent application.

The ETNZ comment about Bermuda (compared with other America's Cup village experiences) is described in these terms:

Key themes that emerged from ETNZ feedback included: 

• This was the best venue for sailing but was a poor village as it was hard for people to access (a long way from main population areas) (Figure 5);
• For this reason the super yachts didn’t like being based at the AC village as there were limited local amenities;
• Teams were required to build their own bases, which was challenging due to all materials needing to be imported into Bermuda and local trade being expensive. They were provided a hard stand and services for the construction of their base; but had to remove it at the end of the regatta as part of the deal; and
• ETNZ’s base was on an Island which made it more challenging to build, but ended up being one of the best bases as it was right next to the spectator zone.

There are a number of points for Auckland - not just ETNZ - in these comments:

Super yacht accommodation is a significant consideration for syndicates who want to provide attractive berthage for their sponsors. While that might be important to syndicates, it is not a priority for the Auckland public. Super yacht berthage fees are one of Panuku's revenue streams. It is clearly in Panuku's interests to increase the capacity of Auckland wharfspace and allow more super yachts to berth close to Auckland's CBD. Again - while that might be in Panuku's interest, or in the interests of sporting events and their sponsors, waterfront space and access is a public amenity and asset. Any activity which reduces the quality and quantity of the public waterfront experience will inevitably be contested.

It is important to note that the Bermuda authorities provided access by syndicates to previously industrial land. I note that this ex-military land was previously occupied by storage facilities and tanks and weaponary and will likely be contaminated and unremediated. This did not prevent the location of temporary syndicate base structures, which had to be removed once the regatta was over. Auckland's waterfront is already the site of a temporary structure built to host an event - that is the plastic structure on Queens Wharf. New Zealand has a history of accommodating events of all kinds and designing, constructing and removing temporary structures of all shapes and sizes to host and accommodate events. Hirepool - for example - can build a marquee the size of Eden Park. It is one of many suppliers in New Zealand who design, engineer and construct temporary buildings with suitable walls, access and entry facilities to accommodate events. It seems to me that the Bermuda experience is a suitable model for Auckland located on Wynyard Quarter tank farm land.

Despite Auckland Councillors voting in 14th December explicitly in relation to the hosting of a single America's Cup regatta in 2021, which would have pointed directly at the option of temporary buildings and structures, those delegated authority have chosen to instead seek consent for structures appropriate for hosting TWO sequential America's Cup regattas. While that choice might have an economic rationale viewed from Panuku's and Auckland Council's corporate points of view - it clearly has enormous impact on the waterfront because instead of temporary single event based structures being constructed, it will lead to structures that are in existence for at least ten years (and possibly more given the option of applying for consent extensions.