Auckland welcomes news of another Volvo Ocean Race

MEDIA RELEASE

June 7, 2002

Auckland City welcomes news of another Volvo Ocean Race

Auckland City has welcomed the news that there will be another Volvo Ocean race in 2005/2006.

The city hosted the event which had a three-and-a-half week stopover in Auckland during January, and the chair of the city’s Recreation and Events committee, Scott Milne says it is good news that the event will definitely be held again.

“We are delighted that the Volvo group of companies has committed to continue its support of the event and we will be working to ensure Auckland is once again a stopover in 2006.

“The last stopover directly generated $16.5 million for the city and the overall impact of the event was as much as three times that amount, “ Councillor Milne says.

He says Auckland City is excited by the opportunity but is not ready to commit until more details are known.

The city will be contacting the organisers of the around the world ocean race, Volvo Event Management, at the completion of the current race scheduled to finish in Kiel, Germany, within the next two days.

Councillor Milne says while the organisers have indicted there could be fewer stopovers with just one Australiasian stopover, he is confident Auckland will be able to put forward a very good case if it comes down to a competition between Auckland and Sydney which also hosted the race this year.

“Our experience in hosting the event means that we could give even better value for sponsors and the city next time, and I would be very surprised if Volvo Event Management weren’t interested in Auckland again given the very positive feedback we have had from them.”

Cr Milne says a decision on the course for the next race is expected to be made within the next six months so Auckland will need to move relatively quickly to shore up its case to host the event again.

ENDS

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