Auckland Regional Council chairman Mike Lee says he will take the blame for a poor turn out at an exhibition football match starring David Beckham, which looks set to make a financial loss.
Only 16,600 people turned out to watch Beckham play for the LA Galaxy against the Oceania All Stars at Mt Smart Stadium on Saturday night. The venue has 30,000 seats. The Galaxy won, 3-0.
Despite a two-for-one ticket deal and predictions by the regional council that fans would attend on the day, the event failed to meet the required sales of 20,000 tickets to cover costs.
Chairman Mike Lee says advice the match would be a commercial success was wrong.
Mr Lee says a financial loss looks inevitable and he is prepared to take the blame for the event.
Until the final receipts come in, Mr Lee says it will not be known what the extent of the loss will be for the ARC.
Oceania Football Confederation general secretary Tai Nicholas said hard economic times and the match being played shortly before Christmas probably contributed to smaller than predicted crowd numbers.
Local Government Minister Rodney Hide says it appears Auckland Regional Council has money to burn after sustaining a financial loss on a game featuring David Beckham.
He said the council must have a lot more money than he would have thought, if it can afford to bring a football team to New Zealand.
