Tourism and Hospitality Minister Louise Upston yesterday announced a series of events across the country but nothing came for any event below the Waitaki River.
The funding of $2.3 million comes from the government’s $70 million major events and tourism package.
Events announced yesterday covered sport, food, culture and innovation.
Mrs Upston said further events were set to be announced over the next few months.
Dunedin Venues Management Ltd chief executive Paul Doorn said he was confident acts for the stadium would be announced in due course but could not say anything yet.
He said the stadium was still very much in the hunt for acts but it was playing the waiting game.
The major events and tourism package is for events this year.
The fund was set up by the government to help venues, councils and organisations get events to their area as events generated revenue across many sectors of the economy.
Mr Doorn said yesterday’s announcement was centred on smaller-scale events and thought the government was keeping its powder dry for later in the year.
He said things had changed somewhat for big concerts where data now showed people were happy to jump on a plane and "travel to Auckland, heaven forbid, or even worse, Sydney or Melbourne".
"So the artists themselves, if you’re a big artist, like tier one-type artist, then they just know, well, I’m not going to move our stuff at great cost. If we just stay here for one or two more nights, then people will travel to the big cities."
At the Laneway music festival in Auckland last week, nearly 50% of the crowd came from outside Auckland.
"Now that’s 40,000 people. It’s a decent chunk.
"So a lot of people are travelling and it’s chicken and egg.
"Would they travel if you had more events down here? I’d like to think that they’d probably stay put and just go to the things that are here.
"So it’s a bit frustrating but, yeah, I’m hoping to not be frustrated for that much longer."
Super Rugby Pacific starts this weekend, the Highlanders hosting the Crusaders on Friday and the Chiefs the following weekend.
The North Stand was opened yesterday for the Highlanders matches.
Mr Doorn said he was hoping for a good season and two big games at home would start the season off well.
