Tennis Auckland chief executive Rohan West said losing the annual funding would be a major shock.
“The event support is an investment,” West told the Herald.
“It’s not a grant, it’s not a handout … it’s literally an investment by the city to get more money back and to generate more than 15,000 visitor nights over that two week period.”
West said the fortnight of tennis attracts almost 1500 international visitors – including players and their entourages, tournament staff, tour officials, fans – while 20% of all the ticket purchases are from people travelling from other parts of New Zealand.
“It’s a massive amount of revenue that comes into the city,” said West.
“So, it’s an investment – of which we pay it back in spades.”
If the council investment was cut for 2027, West said there would be a considerable impact.
“That money is a bedrock of our event-staging budget,” said West.
“Not having it will impact the level of professionalism and how we can stage the event. It’s a huge amount of money to come out of our event budget, marketing, promotions … across the board.
“We couldn’t do what we do to anywhere near the current levels, with things like the Serve.
“The way we have structured the agreement with Tautaki Auckland Unlimited, that money goes a long way towards covering the early event set up costs.
“The Serve, the temporary grandstands take a lot of money up front, lots of deposits and pre-payments so a lot of that money goes to those suppliers, who are predominantly Auckland-based.”
The ASB Classic set attendance records again in 2026. Photo / Photosport
A key focus of Tuesday’s Budget and Performance committee at council will be the impending rates increase for 2027, which has been deemed necessary partly due to the operational costs of the City Rail Link, which is expected to open in the second half of 2026.
Gillon told the Herald his amendment would be a “request for further information on a suite of options to reduce the rates rise impact.
“I want to be clear – I am not targeting the major events fund – it is just one of a number of things where we are requesting some advice on what would happen if we deferred that.”
By doing it for one year, that would lead into the next long-term plan, where the [events funding] would be fully, properly looked at.”
When asked if it would be wise to cut the tennis funding – given the money that is generated by the event, Gillon replied:
“That’s why we need the advice. There will be pros and cons on all of these topics … but we need to understand all of that before we proceed. That’s why it is in the mix.”
The council events fund also includes other ‘business as usual’ events, such as the Auckland Marathon (believed to receive about $120,000), Diwali and the Lantern festival. It’s understood those events would be cancelled for 2027, without the funding.
According to a report provided to councillors earlier this month, there is currently a $7m major events funding shortfall. The 2024-2034 Long Term Plan had assumed that this would be covered through a new bed night visitor levy, but the Government has so far not enabled legislation to bring in such a bed tax.
It is understood that a proposal from the Mayor’s office has made up part of the shortfall in major events.
However, the rest needs to be found during the year, which is a short term approach before the next long term plan is enacted.
The same report said that “TAU has outlined that while the list of events delivered changes year to year, there is a mix of anchor events that would be in jeopardy if funding was reduced for 2026/2027”.
Michael Burgess has been a sports journalist for the NZ Herald since 2005, covering the Olympics, Fifa World Cups, and America’s Cup campaigns. He is a co-host of the Big League podcast.