Dunedin Venues Management Ltd (DVML) chief executive David Davies told the Otago Daily Times he was ‘‘actively involved'' with a Coldplay promoter in relation to the band performing at Dunedin.
But Chugg Entertainment, Coldplay's Ausralasian promoter, denied there was any such dialogue.
A Chugg spokeswoman, who asked not to be named, yesterday told the ODT the company had never been involved in any discussion about Coldplay performing in Dunedin.
Chugg had no comment to make in respect of whether Dunedin's airport had limited capacity to accommodate international bands or their equipment.
At a Dunedin City Council meeting yesterday, Mr Davies told councillors that Dunedin had been close to getting a Coldplay concert.
He said Coldplay considered playing in Dunedin and that the issue with the band was it would be able to fly in, but not fly out of the city because the airport runway was too short for its fully-laden plane to take off.
Mr Davies also said the band needed to be in Sydney the following day to set up for a concert there, so it could not consider landing at Christchurch and transporting gear by road.
He said ‘‘we were pretty close to getting Coldplay'', and the reason Dunedin was ‘‘in the mix'' for Coldplay was because the promoter had come to the Elton John concert at the stadium to check it out.
When contacted after yesterday's council meeting, Mr Davies said his only comment on the issue was he had no desire to put ‘‘that relationship'' [between DVML and Chugg] at risk.
