Northland’s publicly-owned stadium has dropped the “community rate” it once offered amateur sports teams, with some saying commercial prices have driven them away.

It comes after Whangārei District Council told stadium manager Northern Events Centre
(2021) Trust it had to run “on a commercial basis according to industry best practice”.

“It came out of the blue, we found out about it in the last week,” said Northern Football Federation area manager Dave Alabaster.

“We had our senior finals booked [at the stadium] for August 20 which we’re now not going to be able to do because it’s way too expensive.”

Alabaster said the teams will now have to break the 11-year tradition of playing their finals at the stadium and relocate somewhere else.

“I sent a letter out to the clubs yesterday … I know they’ll be really annoyed about it,” Alabaster said on Tuesday.

“It’s pretty short-sighted … it’s a community facility and the community isn’t going to be able to afford to use it.

“We’re talking nearly $10,000 to run our event,” Alabaster said.

Kamo Football club board member Brad Flower said the situation was unfortunate and described the trust’s approach to clubs as “take it or leave it”.

“It’s the highlight for a lot of the clubs to play there.”

Flower said most clubs are run by volunteers and don’t have anywhere near the same level of funds as commercial sports groups.

“If this is now going to be a long-term strategy of the new trust, how many other community events will be cancelled due to becoming unaffordable?”

A spokesperson from Sport Northland said they were not aware of the stadium’s price changes.

Northland Event Centre 2021 Trust general manager Carina de Graaf said groups were warned in advance.

“The community rate offered by the previous trust ceased to exist when the new trust was established. Existing contracts were honoured and advised in advance that the community rate would no longer be in existence.”

In its “statement of expectations,” the council told the centre to “operate as a multipurpose, community facility for the benefit of Northland.”

De Graaf pointed to the council’s instruction it was to be managed “on a commercial basis”.

“The stadium is still very much a part of our community; however, we need to strike a balance to ensure we can stand on our own two feet without relying on further ratepayer subsidy.”

The statement of expectations
placed other operating conditions on the trust, including counting financial success “based on contribution to the economic impact on local businesses, rather than by profit generated”.

It was also told it had to deliver the Whangārei District Council Events Strategy outcomes of “building local confidence, local capability and local connection”.

Those outcomes, according to the document, included an aim to “increase local participation and engagement in community events” and to “promote and celebrate community cohesion”.

Whangārei District Council did not respond to questions about the decision and said the trust is “standalone” and the council “is not involved with the day-to-day running of operations”.

Up until late last year, the council had an agreement with the Northland Events Centre Trust (NECT) for NECT to manage and operate the stadium.

A new standalone trust (Northland Events Centre 2021 Trust) was created as a Council Controlled Organisation to manage and govern Semenoff Stadium on December 1 last year. It got $685,620 from the council to fund its activities for the year, including discounted rent for the office space.

The letter of expectations from the council said it was “likely” it would provide a 100 per cent rent concession to cover the whole building “since the Trust has sole use of the facility and receives income from the tenancies and hireage”.

Northland Events Centre trustee Paula Kearns declined to comment and referred the Advocate to De Graaf.

The stadium had a facelift in 2010 funded by $13 million from the Northland Regional Council and $3m from Whangārei District Council. Central government put in $2.5m to meet Rugby World Cup 2011 standards.