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Speaker 1: So no America's Cup in New Zealand. Again, it was

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Speaker 1: potentially a three way Auckland, private and central government coming

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Speaker 1: to the party. Central was the letdown. They don't have

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Speaker 1: the money. So that was that. Major Events Group founding

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Speaker 1: director Chris Simpson with us. Chris, very good morning to you.

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Speaker 2: Good morning Mike.

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Speaker 1: As profoundly disappointed as you may well be. I had

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Speaker 1: zero expectation a deal was ever going to be made.

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Speaker 1: Did you honestly think it was possible?

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Speaker 2: Now? I was probably a bit similar to you. Really,

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Speaker 2: I knew kind of the level of investment in the

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Speaker 2: current sort of position that the government has and the

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Speaker 2: challenges that we're sort of facing in the major ete space.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, although seventy five million, the government of quoting seventy

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Speaker 1: five million, whether that's Acura or not, who would know.

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Speaker 1: But seventy five million spread over several years. It's hardly

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Speaker 1: big Bucks, is it. It's a couple of million dollars

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Speaker 1: a month.

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Speaker 2: It's hardly big Bucks compared to other countries and not

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Speaker 2: they're investing in major of eats started as big Bucks

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Speaker 2: for New Zealand.

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Speaker 1: Do we have the poor man's syndrome at the moment,

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Speaker 1: we feel poor, we act poor, therefore we are poor.

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Speaker 2: I think, well, I'm a little bit biased, but I

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Speaker 2: think we actually do currently. Like obviously we can't take

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Speaker 2: on the Middle East and what they're investing in major events,

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Speaker 2: but when you see our neighbors across the ditch and

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Speaker 2: what they're spending on major events. We are in a

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Speaker 2: space where we've historically hosted world class events and we've

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Speaker 2: managed to get through over that time just because we've

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Speaker 2: got a great track record and delivering world class events.

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Speaker 2: But that doesn't sort of cut it anymore, and almost

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Speaker 2: as an assumption that we're going to win major events

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Speaker 2: as a rite without sort of significant levels of investment.

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Speaker 1: We've got to get out there and get them. So

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Speaker 1: does this need to be national? Is that part of

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Speaker 1: the problem? National? Be local? So it's always you know,

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Speaker 1: it's Auckland or Wellington or christ Church versus the government.

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Speaker 1: Does this need to be run from head officer to

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Speaker 1: speak or not?

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Speaker 2: I think, look, at the end of the day, we're

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Speaker 2: a tiny country, so we need to work together on

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Speaker 2: the world stage to really go after events that we

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Speaker 2: think are really good fit for the country. But really,

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Speaker 2: you know, we all have the same strategy in mind

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Speaker 2: and what we're going after and what's relevant to New

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Speaker 2: Zealand and what reinforces our brand fillers and all that

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Speaker 2: sort of stuff. So I think, you know, we do

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Speaker 2: need to sort of hunt as a pack. We're not

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Speaker 2: going to get it if the government's not under something

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Speaker 2: and the city is. And then of course we've got

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Speaker 2: the challenge of regional dispersal because outside of couple of

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Speaker 2: cities there's very little major events funding sitting and some

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Speaker 2: of the smaller agents.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, you've got to want it, basically, don't you. Chris

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Speaker 1: appreciate you're inside Christenson, who's the Major Events Group funding director.

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Speaker 1: I also wonder if there's a little bit of something

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Speaker 1: about the America's Cup individually as an event. There's the

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Speaker 1: Ankst flu Ride, vaccine mandates and Grant Dalton. They'll get

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Speaker 1: you going every time. For more from the Mic Asking Breakfast,

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