Cheers folks it’s been fun

Hi all, this is a goodbye from me of sorts. After starting this site way back in March 2007 & after a staggering 750,000+ views I’ve had to make the decision to step down from all Admin responsibilities and ownership of the site. 

We’ve come a long way, and with Elizabeth at the helm things will still pretty much run along the lines they have been recently. As you know for most of the time we haven’t agreed on many issues & points, and the site made massive advances when I invited Elizabeth as co-contributor, a He Said/She Said kinda thing.

At times this site is ahead of the play on many issues in this amazing city and does a wonderful job. We have been the envy of most cities around the country, driving conversations that simply wouldn’t happen anywhere in the media.

It’s a heck of a lot of work for one person to carry on the site, so I do hope you’d appreciate how much work actually goes into this. Links to update, comments to approve (some to delete) but always putting the city at the forefront.

So play nice ladies & gentlemen, yes by all means keep up the robust debate, but remember that the freedom of speech doesn’t give the freedom to offend or slur.

I of course will continue to read & who knows I may even get time in the future to contribute to the site in ways I simply can’t at the moment.

All the best, it’s been fun, but as the Two Ronnies would say, it’s over to you now Elizabeth.

Thanks, Paul Le Comte

DVML . . . | ‘Make the stadium work’ losses continue

Dunedin Venues Management Ltd (DVML) is a Council Controlled Organisation (CCO) —operating losses and compounding debt

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### ODT Online Tue, 1 Oct 2013
DVML loss bigger than forecast
By Chris Morris
Ratepayers will not be hit in the pocket again despite the company running Dunedin’s Forsyth Barr Stadium missing its mark by nearly $700,000. Dunedin Venues Management Ltd on Monday revealed a $986,000 loss for the 2012-13 year, which chief executive Darren Burden said represented progress after a $3.21 million loss the previous year. However, the company had been forecasting an even better turnaround, with a $298,000 loss predicted for 2012-13 in a statement of intent published in July last year.

In the end, the $986,000 loss was $688,000 worse than expected, the company’s annual report confirmed.

Mr Burden said the loss could be covered internally using income from other sources, such as ground memberships and other private sector sponsorship arrangements.

Mr Burden said the forecasts for 2012-13 were actually completed in early 2012, about 18 months before this week’s results were released. Because of that, they were also based on only about six months of trading by DVML, he said. For those reasons, there was always going to be ”a level of uncertainty”, but the accuracy of future forecasts should improve, he said.
Read more

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Associated comments at ODT Online, in the public interest:

Really?
Submitted by overit on Thu, 03/10/2013 – 9:24pm.

As has been pointed out elsewhere, these figures may not be true reflection of the FB Stadium earning its way. Now that DVML has other income streams from the Railway Station and the Dunedin Centre it would be very interesting to see what the separated financial result for FB stadium is rather than DVML as a whole.

Maybe the ODT could report on this?

A grip
Submitted by russandbev on Wed, 02/10/2013 – 6:38pm.

MikeStK, the Larsen report and the PWC report – both of which were published in the ODT – made it plain that the whole basis of the stadium’s finances were nothing than hyperbole. Huge under-estimation of costs of construction, huge over-estimation of economic benefits, and under-estimation of on-going operational costs. By now, surely most proponents of this White Elephant can see how completely destructive this project has been on Dunedin’s well-being. The only people or groups to have benefited directly from this project have been the very fortunate land owners who sold at round 3 times the budgeted amounts, the private CST who received regular fees for their management of the project, the various “consultants” who provided glowing future forecasts for stadium usage which have all proved to be optimistic at best, the ORFU who have been bailed out, the few promoters that have received subsidies for bringing in the few shows that have been staged at the stadium, the anonymous economic impact analysts who provide regular non-peer group reviewed reports on mythical income, and of course the highly paid executives of the entities themselves who seem to make sure the balls are continually being juggled to obscure the true position.

And of course the people to pay for all of this are the ratepayers. Behind it all are the potential governance people who, it seems largely, want to just pretend that all in the garden is lovely. Well, everyone now has the opportunity to make your views known. If you don’t vote, then you are as much to blame as those that made this mess happen. Vote wisely.

Diverting debt repayments
Submitted by MikeStk on Wed, 02/10/2013 – 1:26pm.

Now just a minute – back when we were pretending that income from memberships were really “private fundraising” rather than pre-purchased ticket sales the city borrowed $45m to cover the fact that this money wasn’t going to be paid up front but would instead dribble in over 5-10 years. If Mr Burden’s now going to divert this money that was supposed to be used to pay off the debt borrowed against this future income to paying off his own losses who is going to pay off the actual $45m in principal and associated interest?

This whole rugby stadium thing appears to be a giant game of cups and balls.

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

*Image: Dunedin Venues logo overstitched (re-imaged by Whatifdunedin)