An Auckland Tourism, Events And Economic Development report has revealed that the 2014 Auckland 9’s pumped over $9 million into the cities local economy.
Over 68,000 attended the two day event held at Eden Park with estimates that over 16,000 were New Zealanders traveling into Auckland to attend and another 6,000 making the trip from Australia.
All of the figures are well over the first year estimates laid out in the planning stages of the first Auckland 9’s, which is great news for the city of Auckland and for Rugby League in general.
Despite all of this good news there are issues with staging the 2015 Auckland 9’s at Eden Park.
The stadium has been booked for the Cricket World Cup, and organizers of that event insist that the ground not hold any other sporting event for 30 days prior to the New Zealand vs Australia Cricket World Cup match being staged there on February 28th.
That would mean the ground is unavailable from January 27th on wards, and the NRL is insisting they will not play the 2015 Auckland 9’s before January 30th next year.
It is something that needs to be sorted out pretty quickly. The Auckland 9’s have proven to be a winner for the city of Auckland. There is already pressure on to keep the event there with bigger stadiums in Australia ready to swoop in and steal the NRL Nines is they get a chance.
Hopefully it all gets sorted out quickly.
You can read the entire ATEED report by clicking the link below.
Link: ATEED Report On The 2014 Auckland 9’s
