Speculation had been growing that either Hamilton or Dunedin would become the new hosts for the New Zealand leg of the HSBC World Sevens Series, however that was soon dismissed when the event’s dates were not able to be aligned with the university year, meaning students would not be in town to attend the game.
The most recent event, which took place on 28 and 29 January this year and was won by South Africa, had a spectacularly low attendance in Wellington’s Westpac Stadium, with as many as two-thirds of the stadium remaining empty.
Wellington has hosted the sevens for the last eighteen years, making a profit on each of the first sixteen of those years. However, the tournament garnered its first ever financial loss in 2016, and that was repeated for the 2017 event. It now looks set to be shifted to another city in the hope of regaining the spectators that once flocked to the stadium to witness the annual sporting spectacle.
According to Dunedin Venues Limited Marketing and Communications Manager Kim Barnes, no offer was formally sent to the company about Dunedin’s Forsyth Barr Stadium being the venue for the 2018 event, but the fact that the student population would not be around during the event was seen as a decisive factor in making it a financially viable option or not.
The tournament will resume in Hong Kong on 7 April.