Posh and Becks on the rates!!

Posh and Becks on the rates!!

Not trying to put a dampener on anything but is it right that Wellington City council should be forking out ratepayers money to bring Beckham an co down here and also not disclosing how much ratepayers money they are actually going to pay?
Beckham on the rates no thanks, perhaps Prendergast  and her free spending cronies up at the city chambers should  spend a bit more of our money on the local sports grounds and facilities rather than over paid show ponies !

Dude, i'm no Beckham fan, but you should see the kids. If he comes, it'll bring punters in, and they'll bring more than enough for multiple upgrades.

Not against him coming simply questioning if it is a proper use of ratepayers money!

Didn't seem to bother any body when it was done for Tiger Woods!!!

From what I heard, any funds given by the council is to be used strictly to market the game outside the region. Not sure if that's 100% of it, but it should draw in a few people from outside the region who may in turn end up supporting the club by coming to games, buying merchandise etc...

Jambo, I suspect BB is right. 

If that game brings 10,000 in from out of Wellington they all spend money here that wouldn't normally and the city gets the benefits.  Hell, most of us will use public transport to get there and that helps fund local stuff.  It's the same attitude you see in Hamilton with them taking on the Rally of New Zealand and the Australian V8's.

It's also exactly the sort of attitude Auckland doesn't have that means the game could never happen there.

Thanks Hard News. :)

Perhaps the Council should sort out the $4m mess that is Karori Park first. What a disaster that is.

Yeah, a guy from work was talking about football and his wife (who has no idea about roundball) was talking about david beckham coming to wellington.

Sorry still not convinced and i do smell a council election just round the corner and an attempt at cheap (or not so cheap) popularism by the present incumbent of the  neck chain ,i just think the councils main focus when it comes to spending my/your money  should be on basic infrastructure ie Drains ,sewerage sports grounds community centers local transport etc not show biz and make no mistake thats what this is !
 Also whats the reason for the confidentiality clause,fek  its my /your  money surely we have the right know how much they intend spending in an attempt to "entice"( source Dom post) Beckham and Galaxy to NZ

I am sure the same argument came up when Tiger woods came to town, riding the rates dollar as well.

two minds bout this

Hes just a person.. who gives a sh*t.. however the publicity wellington and wellington phoenix will get out of it will be a good return on the cash.

And lets be fair... seeing a game of phoenix vs galaxy at the caketin sold out will be worth it :D

Is it to be Phoenix vs Galaxy?  Not just Becks doin a walk-about?

i would rather money spent on football and getting beckham in to promote the phoenix than spent on arts or music. money is spent there all the time it is just not as high a profile. i doubt anybody will know where there rates are going but i would rather see money spent on sport than other areas

HaHa
If you read my posts you will see that i totally support the upgrading of local sports facilities and indeed the local council deserves praise for Karori, ive played there twice this year and it is an excellent facility and  it will benefit the Karori community and everyone else that uses it for many years to come not sure if David Beckham will have the same long term benefits!

Hey if the council really was worried about the election, why the hell would they be spending tax payers money?! The majority of us don't want our money spent on Anything, or so you would believe. Any form of entertainment will be attacked by others who prefer other ways to be entertained. But as said above our money is not being spent on the entertainment, but on the promotion of our fair city as a place where entertainment can be enjoyed.

They're using our funds to pull more people to our city, which is what they're meant to do. Leave it off now, k? You're in a football forum telling us you don't want to see a football match. What kind of response were you expecting?

As for the confidentiality clause, I heard that's from the teams end, they don't want people to know how much they charge for exhibition matches. I don't really care! My money gets wasted on a tonne of crap that I don't want to fork out for - for once I'm happy to hand it over. Bring on the Galaxy!

yes if beckham does come to nz to play football that would be great but he propaly would just come and sit on the bench the whole game or start on the bench and have like 10 minutes on the pitch

For the six millionth time.  The match agreement includes a guarantee on how much time Beckham will play, it is rumoured to be at least 55 minutes or the match can be psotponed.

thank you

Hey if the council really was worried about the election, why the hell would they be spending tax payers money?! The majority of us don't want our money spent on Anything, or so you would believe. Any form of entertainment will be attacked by others who prefer other ways to be entertained. But as said above our money is not being spent on the entertainment, but on the promotion of our fair city as a place where entertainment can be enjoyed.

They're using our funds to pull more people to our city, which is what they're meant to do. Leave it off now, k? You're in a football forum telling us you don't want to see a football match. What kind of response were you expecting?

As for the confidentiality clause, I heard that's from the teams end, they don't want people to know how much they charge for exhibition matches. I don't really care! My money gets wasted on a tonne of crap that I don't want to fork out for - for once I'm happy to hand it over. Bring on the Galaxy!
[/QUOTE]


1)Politicians are never shy about spending other peoples money if it means they can get a sniff of power at election time just check out some of the scandals around funding at the last general election which are still being hotly debated !
2)So the money is being spent on promoting our fair city, if thats the case why does the Dom Post state that Mayor Kerry Prendergast confirmed funding had been signed off to help entice Beckham to play in Wellington enticement/promotion ,maybe it would help if they let us now exactly how they are going to spend our money.
3)They are using the funds to bring people to our city, you what?so wee unknown footy star and his shy retiring wife need Wellington rates money spent on them to let us know they are coming so that we can all pile into Welly for the game,for feks sake if  Posh picks up a lettuce leaf its world news and David Beckham is never out of the papers they hardly need prendegast and her mob with help of ratepayers money to promote the fact that they are coming to NZ!!
4)When did i suggest that i dont want to see a football match ?i was just asking the question of whether its right to promote such events using ratepayers money ,i have no problem watching exhibition games its a bit of fun but i am yet to be convinced by anyone on  this thread that Beckham is worth the as yet undisclosed amount of ratepayers money that Kerry Prendegast and co is lavishing on them and what the long term future benefits it will have for the capital!
5) Ok fine so you dont care how public money is spent well theres a few voters out there who do care how public money is spent but you are entitled to your opinion.







Kiwi Jambo2007-08-27 17:19:46

Nice rebuttal mate. Thanks for leaving it be :)

I don't see what all the QQing is about really, I mean we're trying to make football take off in our nation and our city, what better way than to bring the glamour-boy of all football over here for an exhibition match?  I may not like him but there's no denying that this is only going to help football fever in our nation.

Well as you said, elections are coming around, so feel free to vote her out of office if you feel it's not a good use of rates Personally I feel it could be either a loss or gain in terms of short-term profit, but it works, there will be a LOT more people supporting football in the capital, including a larger contingent on fans coming from out of town to cheer on the Phoenix, then spending their money at local businesses (read: Backbencher haha). Who knows, maybe even some fans from other A-League franchises will fly in and bring in Aussie coin (bit of a stretch but sports tourism is real, would be the perfect chance for some Aussie bloke to take his family to NZ on holiday? Haha). It'll also encourage outside interests to use the Wellington and the Ring of Fire for world class events, due to the mana this kind of event adds to it.

That being said, I do highly agree with you that accounting needs to be public - the amount of money put in and an estimate on the amount of money expected to be taken out. And while I can't talk on the state of Wellington's sports field other than Kelburn Park, I do agree that if facilities aren't up to scratch (especially those used for youth sports), they need to be a top priority.

Terry S was just on the radio saying the numbers being chucked around in the papers about the size of Wellington City's contribution are rubbish.

Has this match been confirmed yet? I will probably come up but I'm a little bit apprehensive as I'm worried that ticketek might stuff everything up, which could result in not only me missing the game, but me wasting a heck of a lot of money flying up to Wellington.

Ticketek "might" stuff up?

The papers said it was confirmed, but i'm pretty sure even Ticketek would only print tickets for a confirmed event unless they blatantly said it was a contigency deposit. Get your ticket, then your flight. Hope to see you there!

i dont think that they would stuff up something THIS BIG, i mean one of the most famous football players is coming to New Zealand and they aren't THAT incompetent that theyll stuff it up 

1)Politicians are never shy about spending other peoples money if it means they can get a sniff of power at election time just check out some of the scandals around funding at the last general election which are still being hotly debated !
2)So the money is being spent on promoting our fair city, if thats the case why does the Dom Post state that Mayor Kerry Prendergast confirmed funding had been signed off to help entice Beckham to play in Wellington enticement/promotion ,maybe it would help if they let us now exactly how they are going to spend our money.
3)They are using the funds to bring people to our city, you what?so wee unknown footy star and his shy retiring wife need Wellington rates money spent on them to let us know they are coming so that we can all pile into Welly for the game,for feks sake if  Posh picks up a lettuce leaf its world news and David Beckham is never out of the papers they hardly need prendegast and her mob with help of ratepayers money to promote the fact that they are coming to NZ!!
4)When did i suggest that i dont want to see a football match ?i was just asking the question of whether its right to promote such events using ratepayers money ,i have no problem watching exhibition games its a bit of fun but i am yet to be convinced by anyone on  this thread that Beckham is worth the as yet undisclosed amount of ratepayers money that Kerry Prendegast and co is lavishing on them and what the long term future benefits it will have for the capital!
5) Ok fine so you dont care how public money is spent well theres a few voters out there who do care how public money is spent but you are entitled to your opinion.

$98 return from chch heck where coming its the south islands Beige brigade at its finest YF will be off the chain.

If Beckham fills out the stadium and 2000 of those people come back the next week to watch teh Nix in an A-League match; MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! Anything to help kick rugby out and footy in!

I think the money spent to support enticing Beckham here is well worth it.  I've been talking to people around the office for the past couple of weeks about the possibility of this happening, and the overwhelming response among the non-footy fans is they would go along to see Beckham play.
Admittedly, these are mostly chicks...

Still, it would definately give a huge boost to the club and would no doubt bump up the takings of the hotels, bars, restaurants, taxi-drivers, and shops around Wellington for a couple of days.

Seems like a reasonable investment of council money to me.

I am with you on this.

i think the ends justifies the means

This is such a silly debate. Does it really matter? The game is happening, looks like we're all going, hell, we're probably all gonna be sitting in the same section, so let's all shakes hands and make up eh?

If you don't like the tax thing, do as said above and vote out Kerry. If you're for it, vote for who you want, we don't really care!


I'm going, you're going, let's leave it at that eh?

yeah i might go but dont see why i should have to pay twice for one of the richest sports stars in the world to turn up here and kick a ball around!

It's all simple economics, if Beckham comes, the name "Wellington" will be seen and heard by literally millions (perhaps 10's or hundreds of millions of people round the world who have never heard of our little village until then).

I liked the comment I read in the Dominion Post that Victoria won't be coming as she probably wouldn't want to sit on a 36 seater bus driving around Wellington