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Ashburton Aviation Museum secretary Warren Janett with the Hansen Deuce, the only aircraft of its kind in the world. PHOTO SUSAN SANDYS 050217-SS-0010
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Trust loosens sponsorship ties BY SUE NEWMAN
SUE.N@THEGUARDIAN.CO.NZ
Future bright on court P24
When the Ashburton Trust sold its businesses, it also sold its opportunities to offer sponsorship to groups and organisations around the Ashburton District. For decades sports teams, events and facilities have included the words Ashburton Trust alongside their name, but it is now taking a long, hard look at its involvement in offering cash for naming rights deals. The trust’s new business environment, where its businesses have been sold and its role is now as a landlord, has changed the sponsorship landscape, says chief executive Robert Reid. Those sponsorships were essentially commercial arrangements; if the Hotel Ashburton sponsored a sports team, then the expectation was the pay-back came in support over the bar. Without businesses those commercial arrangements don’t exist, Reid said. Over the past year the trust has sold
the hotel, Speights Alehouse and has its other key sponsor, the Tinwald Tavern, on the market. There could be big losers among the district’s sports teams and events, including the Mid Canterbury Rugby Union. Reid’s not saying the money is cut, but he is signalling there will be change. “There’s been no decisions to stop anything but the message I’ve been giving is that this year and beyond is we’ll have to look at the way we support these organisations, this will have to change. It doesn’t mean they’ll get more – or less. It’ll be case by case,” he said. Trust chairwoman Fay Watson said that when the trust ran hospitality businesses it operated a venue promotions and sponsorship budget at each venue. “We looked for a business return on sponsorships and would try and relate that to a venue. Where a venue has been sold an organisation wanting sponsorship support should approach the owners who are running those businesses
and I expect they will get a favourable outcome if the organisation is supporting the venue sufficiently in return to make it a win-win,” she said. In the past the trust also had a corporate board sponsorship/grant budget that it used to support the trust brand and in its new trading environment it was looking closely at this to see whether or not it was still appropriate. “It’s taking us time to work through that change process and we acknowledge that makes it a little awkward for organisations that may have taken for granted that they’ll receive funding for events,” she said. As well as the change impacting on sports teams and events, it could also impact on facilities to which the trust, through sponsorship, has secured naming rights. In the medium term, however, things will not change. The Ashburton Trust Event Centre sponsorship is locked in for 10 years and the Ashburton Trust Tennis Centre for another five years.
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