Stadium numbers (via ODT):
• 605,000 ticketed fans since opening day in 2011
• 158,000 so far this year
• Up from 136,000 same period last year (16.2% increase)
• 80% rugby crowd last year
• 45% this year
### ODT Online Sat, 8 Jun 2013
Stadium numbers up and diversifying
By Chris Morris
The Forsyth Barr Stadium crowd is diversifying, but the punters still love their beer and chips, the company running the venue says. Figures released by Dunedin Venues Management Ltd yesterday showed 605,000 fans have now paid to attend a ticketed event at the stadium since opening day in 2011. That included 158,000 fans in the first five months of this year, which was up on last year, when 136,000 paid to enter during the corresponding period, DVML chief executive Darren Burden confirmed. The venue’s reliance on professional rugby was also diminishing, with the proportion of overall attendance linked to rugby games during the five-month period dropping from 80% last year to 45% this year.
Read more
—
Posted by Elizabeth Kerr
What if? Dunedin... 
Thanks ODT. true to form. Got to put a good spin on it don’t you? How else would the incompetents such as Noone get elected back in October. Now that I think the ODT told us that muppet Cr Noone ‘saved’ the city ‘$300,000. No mention of the massive debt he delivered to the city. Noone, old son, get down on bended knee and thank Sir. You will be back around that council table come October it seems.
I’m refering to the frontpage free election promotion for Noone.
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/260244/council-saving-gas
America Has a Stadium Problem
http://www.psmag.com/business-economics/america-has-a-stadium-problem-62665/
Also ….
Stadium status: http://vimeo.com/12239959
Field of Schemes: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0803260164/metafilter-20/ref=nosim/
“What’s one more stadium?
Except it goes beyond that. The problem arises when our children become undereducated, our police forces understaffed, and our firehouses emptied while stadiums are built with those same dollars. The problem becomes an epidemic when it’s $31 billion-with-a-B spent by American taxpayers subsidizing privately-owned stadiums, and a merely 20-year-old stadium is being replaced months after the city it’s in threatened to raise taxes or shrink the budget by $20 million. The problem becomes unsolvable when voters rarely get to actually vote on the issue, and when they vote “no,” the stadiums get built anyway.
“You have classic concentrated benefits and dispersed costs, and politicians have time preferences. They want to get re-elected now, and paying it off later is someone else’s problem.” While Professor Johnson was more direct: “I think that’s really what’s going on here.” Exactly,
Mike, I have the hard copy version of “FIELD OF SCHEMES How the Great Stadium Swindle Turns Public Money into Private Profit” by Joanna Cagan and Neil deMause. It describes perfectly the step by step swindle which occurred here in Dunedin. You, or someone else, are welcome to borrow the book and do a summary of the seven steps comparing it to Dunedin. I don’t have time at the moment as I am working on an added “step” which clinched the swindle here in Dunedin.