America's Cup spend 'won't benefit NZers'

24 Apr 2011 11:25p.m.

bluddgers wrote:

Why didnt they come out with this when Helen bankrolled the Americas cup challenge. The Greens are getting more and more desperate.

24 Apr 2011 02:52p.m.

insider wrote:

Who Knew Fay Richwhite were common thieves, Just ask Winston.

24 Apr 2011 06:40a.m.

Glenn wrote:

James, you are both right and wrong. Yes benefits to economy, but like with all sport it's for such a short time, no long term benefits.

22 Apr 2011 04:51p.m.

Samuel wrote:

It's a great demonstration of the docility of the nz masses and their subjection to corporate groupthink whimsy. Therefore investors will be hugely impressed. Citizens are more productive when they accept the boatrace mentality programming.

22 Apr 2011 03:51p.m.

James J.REad wrote:

Ideally, I don't think that taxpayers should be funding the America's Cup. However, in the past, it has proved to be a very good way of premoting New Zealand skills and products.Boatyards got a number of orders and sailinmg related companies also got overseas orders from places with which they had not dealt in the past.IT will not therefore be a waste of $36 million as some suggest.

22 Apr 2011 01:37p.m.

Kim wrote:

I love the way the Greens think you can just 'break a contract' thats the whole point of a 'contract'.
Does a contract mean nothing to them.
They also need to know that when their mate Trevor Mallard from Labour signed the 'contract' in 2007 he made the contract 'watertight'.
[See 'Stuff' the sports section].
This summarises the Greens atitude towards any fiscal of legal documents or contracts - oh.. just break it.
Thank goodness they have no control at any level in Gov.T.

The left are really getting desperate.
They need to come up with new policies, ideas and directions but they don't as they are useless and they just attack National and Key which gets them no where whatsoever.
They are fractionated and in dissary and go from oned stuff up to another.
The left leaning writers on thses forums do the same - moan all the time and add nothing positive.

22 Apr 2011 01:04p.m.

Clarke wrote:

I believe that all sporting events should be self sustaining. None of them should be using tax payer money, obviously if a sport costs the tax payers money then it isnt worth having. Are we going to continue to throw money at stupid sporting events when people are struggling to feed their kids? and its not just families with children suffering, a vast number of us are. Let sporting events like this and the rugby world cup either succeed or fail on their own. The tax payer shouldnt be contributing to any of them, not when many government services are bad and failing to deliver.

22 Apr 2011 12:55p.m.

Mike wrote:

This go back to the last government of which the Greens were part of. If you disagree with the Team NZ deal from 2008 and want to hold someone responsible - blame the Labour/Greens.

The Greens are more responsible for the deal than the current National lead governemnt.

We should have information about law and order. Eg why can't we know how many times each MP has been arrested. This is info that is important to voting. You wouldn't want to put your money with a thief, and I dont want to vote for criminals. Who has the biggest criminal record in our current crop of MP's? The identy fraudster from ACT is gone, but they were only a minor in criminal activities amoung our MP's.

$36 mil sounds a lot but on the sailing industry with over 1 bil export dollar turnover the govt collects a lot more than that in tax currently. Americas Cup is the pinacle of the industry, so in many ways the NZ industry depends on having a NZ team in the event. So long as the govt tax take exceeds what they support its win/win. Yes we have people who can't add 1+1 who will always be against it, but on the big picture of money spent vs benefit its still a good deal for NZ even if we dont win. If we win, the benefit is much larger. Think how much was put into the rugby world cup event bid. This to an extent is money being spent like that but has an americas cup reggata buildup. Chance of wining the Americas cup without support today - almost zero. chance of wining with support - much, much, hgher (probably 40%).

To be honest, spending $36 mil on welfare, or on Team NZ, Team NZ will benefit NZ much more greatly. It wont be popular amoung those who cant manage their own finances and want more govt bailout of beneficiaries, but its true.

Even if we dont win we will get a huge amount of advertising from it. NZ has been near the top of sailing since KZ7 in Freemantle. We have performed on a shoestring well above our weight and this has lead to a large amount of Tourism and exports of boats and boat tech, and personel. Since Team NZ won the Americas Cup back in the 90's, every cup since has been skippered by a kiwi as we seam to be the best in the world at it. NZ thinks its okay to spend money on rugby, yet as a sport we have performed much better at the americas cup.

22 Apr 2011 11:19a.m.

peter wrote:

This is a gamble pure and simple. Is it a good one? I don't know, it depends on the chances of winning to a large extent. Its probably a $36 million ad campaign of dubious value if we don't win, but if we win and host the regatta in NZ (btw I hope that is a condition of the money being advanced), it has enormous payoffs to NZ Inc which cannot be captured by corporates, so public investment is potentially justified. But to even begin to judge the gamble we need to know what our chances are of winning so lets hear from some yachties on that

22 Apr 2011 09:48a.m.

liberte wrote:

most unusally, the greens are right in this case this is a rich man's sport and there is no way the poor long-suffering taxpayer should fund the boy's fun and I wish govt would drop the condesending spin by saying that they are committed.that is nonsense-are they not the govt? further,what ever happened to govt's strident calls for austerity?are we broke or are we not?how about a little consistency? methinks they speak with forked tongues in summary,taxpayers should not be funding this sport!