Smaller SkyCity won't be an eyesore: KeyNZ Newswire
Updated February 16, 2015,
Prime Minister John Key's reassuring Aucklanders that the SkyCity convention centre won't be an eyesore even though the government won't be stumping up any cash.
SkyCity Entertainment Group will need to go back to the drawing board after it was told it needed to stick to an agreed cost of $402 million.
Last week, Mr Key wouldn't rule out putting money into the centre, saying: "I'd hate to see some sort of eyesore constructed."
But on Monday, Mr Key told TVNZ's Breakfast the convention centre might be "slightly smaller" but disagreed with the suggestion that it would be unattractive.
SkyCity had changed the plans from what was initially talked about to make it "more grandiose" and larger, pushing out the cost by as much as $130m.
"In the end the message is pretty strong: go and build a convention centre, live within your means," Mr Key said.
SkyCity chief executive Nigel Morrison said the company respected and accepted the Crown's decision and will review the design.
SkyCity agreed to build the International Convention Centre two years ago in return for gambling concessions and the government argued New Zealand was getting a new convention centre at no cost to taxpayers.
Labour leader Andrew Little believes a key issue in the cost escalation was the number of pillars in the building.
The "holy grail" of convention centre design is to have as few pillars as possible so people attending conventions don't have to peer around them.
"That requires more expensive engineering. One way of reducing the cost is to fill it up with pillars," Mr Little told NZ Newswire.
"I think the risk now is that they just do a cheap and dirty construction job."
The Greens said it was great that the government had backed down on a handout but remained opposed to the deal.
"The government should walk away from it, before we end up with their proposed eyesore that is built on the misery of problem gambling," said spokeswoman Denise Roche.
https://nz.news.yahoo.com/a/-/top-stories/26299591/smaller-skycity-wont-be-an-eyesore-key/~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Casino boss has played his cards toxically wrong this time HAMISH RUTHERFORD
Last updated 06:59, February 16 2015
OPINION:
No-one should know better than SkyCity chief executive Nigel Morrison that the trick in the gambling business is knowing when to walk away.
In the case of the convention centre negotiations, Morrison should clearly have quit while he was ahead, rather than bait the public as he has in recent months.
Instead, the board of SkyCity must now ask whether the Australian who has headed the company since 2008 will be able to negotiate effectively with the Government again.
READ MORE: No public money for SkyCity centre
The original convention centre deal announced by Prime Minister John Key in May 2013, in which SkyCity was given major gambling concessions, was a good one for the casino group.
Most importantly, it received a lengthy extension to its contract to be the exclusive casino operator in Auckland, as well as hundreds more pokie machines, more tables and new conditions to allow punters to part with their money faster than before.
Why was the Government willing to give such benefits to such a politically difficult industry? Because SkyCity would, in return, build an "international" convention centre, costing more than $400 million and which, according to Key, would not cost the taxpayer a cent.
Treasury papers would later show that the way the Crown approached the negotiations - giving SkyCity special insights and entering into exclusive negotiations early - meant the Crown was unable work out what the casino operator's bottom line was. In short, the odds were stacked in the casino's favour.
That should have been enough.
But it appears Morrison went for more, publishing details of a significantly more expensive centre at the end of last year, knowing full well that the added costs would fall on the Crown
In short, he breathed new life into a controversial issue for the Government, undermining the central defence that somehow National was delivering something for nothing.
SkyCity must now go back to the original deal on the original terms, offsetting higher costs by building a slightly smaller convention centre.
But its act of brinkmanship has humiliated the Government, which is already sensitive to claims that it engages in corporate welfare.
Worse still, it has made it seem as if Key and Economic Development Minister Steven Joyce were outsmarted in commercial negotiations.
SkyCity has a business only because the Government allows it to.
Even before the convention centre deal, SkyCity was a political hot potato.
Morrison's most recent push has turned it toxic. He will regret this the next time he needs a favour
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/66227573/casino-boss-has-played-his-cards-toxically-wrong-this-time