WRC: HYPOCRISY

The Nelson City Council is claiming all sorts of Alice in Wonderland economic benefits from hosting WRC games. But if, as previously shown [17 April 09], council's own economists have assessed the economic impact as being "ZERO", and as the consequential cost benefit analysis must be 100% negative [19 April 09], then how does council even begin to claim such fanciful fairyland figures.
The answer to that question is, simply by good old deception.
Economist Berl's economic activity assessment states that

The proposed $7m upgrade to Trafalgar Park is essential to being able to hold a RWC game in Nelson Tasman and has been factored into the analysis.

So, because the game hosting figures have proven to be such a dismal economic lemon, those figures have been boosted by including the Trafalgar Park upgrade figures as being part and parcel of the WRC economic activity figures.
So much so, Berls assessment shows that the Park upgrade figures comprise 80% of the claimed WRC economic activity.
So, what is wrong with that? Well bluntly put that is just plain old deception and gross hypocrisy.
During notification of the Park upgrade council went to extreme lengths to divorce the two proposals. Council loudly and repeatedly stated that the two proposals had nothing to do with each other, and publicly castigated any ratepayer who even dared to draw any connection between them. Council further attempted to distance the two proposals from each other by insisting that the upgrade was for the provision of a multi purpose outdoor events venue rather than being an upgrade driven by and for the WRC.
To now embrace the upgrade as such an essential part of hosting WRC games, that it requires inclusion of all costs and expenditure connected with the upgrade as being a fundamental part of the WRC economic activity assessment, is at best gross hypocrisy and at worst an outright deceit.