Ōtautahi proves healthy appetite for events

Venues Ōtautahi has plenty of reasons for optimism after smashing budgeted attendance figures by 200,000 during a tough financial climate.

Cantabrians proved their desire to get out and attend concerts, sports, business events and conferences as they turned up in force to the 386 events run across Venues Ōtautahi’s suite of venues. Venues Ōtautahi owns and manages the Christchurch Town Hall and Wolfbrook Arena, and manages Apollo Projects Stadium, the Air Force Museum of New Zealand and Hagley Oval. Venues Ōtautahi is also the operator of One New Zealand Stadium.

The Christchurch City Council-owned organisation released its Annual Report for the financial year ending 30 June 2024 on Wednesday, reporting attendance across its venues at 642,775.

Venues Ōtautahi Chief Executive Caroline Harvie-Teare said the performance in challenging financial times bodes well for the future, especially with the opening of One New Zealand Stadium, Christchurch’s new 40,000 capacity stadium, on the horizon.

“We look forward to what will be a less volatile year and a year that starts to set the platform for an exponentially successful future,” she said.

Over the first two quarters of the 2024-25 financial year, the numbers backed up her sentiments, highlighted by the signing of the naming rights for One New Zealand Stadium in July and a new agreement with ticketing agency Ticketmaster taking effect in October.

“The agreements with One New Zealand and Ticketmaster enable us to generate significant commercial value while staying true to our core values of diversity, inclusion and social good,” she said.

“There is a buzz across Ōtautahi and Waitaha as One New Zealand Stadium starts to take shape. We’ll be in the market for corporate hospitality for One New Zealand Stadium in mid-2025 and the Suites and, Ōtautahi Lounge and Premium Reserves are already proving to be highly in-demand.”

The appetite for big events in the region has continued with strong sales through the first two quarters of the 24/25 financial year.

The rugby league Pacific Championships double header between the Kiwis, Kiwi Ferns, and rival Australian Kangaroos men's and Jillaroos women's teams has sold out; Hozier is set to be the first artist post-Covid to sell out two Arena shows with limited tickets remaining to the second show; The Black Caps test against England is on track for a sellout; And Bryan Adams’ February show at Wolfbrook Arena sold out faster than any other artist post-Covid.

Harvie-Teare said VŌ also remains on target to meet their target of being carbon neutral by 2030.

“We’ve commenced our delivery of our carbon reduction roadmap to meet our target of carbon neutrality by 2030 and we made good progress with an around 11% reduction in carbon emissions in the past financial year. “

Reducing carbon emissions while maintaining the busy venues was no easy feat.

The Christchurch Town Hall was the busiest of VŌ’s venues featuring 247 events. There were 48 events at Wolfbrook Arena, 40 at Hagley Oval, 27 at the Air Force Museum of New Zealand and 22 at Apollo Projects Stadium, while Venues Ōtautahi also mobilised to run the food and beverage other events including Sail GP.

Amongst that total were 57 community events which were supported through discounts equating to $184,000.

Harvie-Teare said supporting the Waitaha community was a key priority of for the organisation which was why their local procurement policy was so important.

“We purchased 82% of our food from Canterbury which is a direct contribution of over $1.7m to local suppliers and producers in the Canterbury region,” she said. “On top of that, we engaged over 70% of our suppliers and contractors from Canterbury delivering a direct contribution of over $11.34m.”

The events held across Venues Ōtautahi delivered an estimated $28.1m of economic benefit to the region.

With the positive start to the 24/25 financial year and One New Zealand Stadium set to open in April 2026, those numbers look to only grow in the future.

23/24 FINANCIAL YEAR BY THE NUMBERS

• 642,775 guests through the venues, 42% ahead of the budgeted target of 450,000
• 386 events across the venue portfolio, 14 more than the budgeted total of 372
• $28.1M of estimated economic benefit to the region from events held across the portfolio of venues
• 82% of food purchases from Canterbury representing a direct contribution of more than $1.7m to local suppliers and producers in the Canterbury region
• 70% of suppliers and contractors from Canterbury delivering a direct contribution of over $11.34m
• $41m of direct and indirect contribution to Canterbury
• 57 community events assisted with discounts equating to more than $184,000
• 81.4 net promoter score, 36.4 points ahead of the target of 45
• 57.6 guest net promoter score, 12.6 points ahead of the target of 45
• 11% reduction in carbon emissions (excluding water and refrigerants)
• 48,405 local Canterbury beers
• 37,700 local Canterbury wines
• 48 Tonnes of local Canterbury vegetables
• 15 Tonnes of local Canterbury beef, pork and chicken
• 49,000 portions of hot chips from potatoes grown in Canterbury
• 1011 sides of Akaroa Salmon