by A majority of city leaders have decided to reduce the capacity of Christchurchs new stadium, from 30,000 seats to a minimum of 25,000, to bring the project in on budget.
Councillors and senior staff attended the extraordinary meeting on Thursday morning to decide on a design change to the stadium after it was publicly revealed the original preferred concept, which could have up to 30,000 seats, would have been over budget by up to $131.4 million.
A majority of councillors endorsed the staff recommendation to lower the number of seats to 25,000 but designers have been directed to try and find efficiencies moving forward to get the capacity to about 27,500.
The city council will approach the regional council and neighbours in Selwyn and Waimakariri for extra funding, which could contribute the cost of design and construction or future operating costs.
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Staff from Besix Watpac, which is leading design and construction, advised councillors that crowds going to stadiums tended to be reducing. “You take for example the AFL in Australia. It’s a religion in Victoria, but they have been losing crowd numbers,” one said.
Christchurch City Council
The Frugal Five Sam MacDonald, James Gough, Phil Mauger, Aaron Keown and Catherine Chu voted for an amendment to keep the proposed stadium at 30,000 seats.
But, five councillors, dubbed by some as the Frugal Five for their previous push to get financial restraint, all voted in favour of an amendment put forward by Sam MacDonald to keep the number of seats at 30,000.
Several councillors criticised the group for advocating to spend millions of extra dollars. They pointed out that the original concept with 30,000 seats would cost at least $88m more.
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Jake McLellan said going to 30,000 seats would create uncertainty and extra costs, which he claimed would be taken from the city’s libraries, pools and roads a comment that led MacDonald to quip: and from cycleways.
James Gough, who supported the amendment to keep 30,000 seats, said he did not want to get the machete out and cut features from the stadium. We have opportunities and leverage galore and now is the time to take it,” he said.
Deputy mayor Andrew Turner said the extra 5000 seats were unnecessary and funding them would be fiscally irresponsible and very poor governance.
Cr Jake McLellan says getting to 30,000 seats will create uncertainty and extra costs.
A Selwyn Council spokesman said on Thursday they had not yet been approached about funding.
If we did, we would take time to review what was proposed and respond directly. However, at this stage Selwyn District Council has made no commitments in our long term plan to putting funding towards a Christchurch stadium project.
Waimakariri mayor Dan Gordon said he also was yet to have discussions with the council, so it was too early to comment about joint funding.
Former Christchurch Regeneration Minister and National MP Gerry Brownlee said 30,000 should be the minimum number of seats.
There hasnt been enough thought put into it, he said.
I just hope that theyll see sense over the next wee while as they sort out the bureaucracy that the council itself has created around this stadium.
Peter Morrison, president of the Canterbury branch of Hospitality New Zealand, said the group had mixed feelings about the agreement.
The proposed stadium is being built across three city blocks bordered by Madras, Hereford, Barbadoes and Tuam streets.
They were disappointed the seating capacity would be lower than originally thought but were also glad it was tracking to be built on time as it had already taken too long.
Canterbury Employers’ Chamber of Commerce general manager Leeann Watson said she too was disappointed and believed the council was compromising the outcome of what should be a real asset to the city.
She said the lower capacity would likely limit the citys ability to host big international sporting events and music acts.
The decision to approach the other councils was a wise move and reflected that the stadium would service the entire Canterbury region and those in the upper South Island, Watson said.
Ultimately, the council needed to just get on with it as further delays would bring increased costs, she said.
With the seat numbers now confirmed, Besix Watpac will lead the development of a preliminary design, expected to be completed by the end of the year. This phase will reveal if there are any further delays to the stadium and will give more certainty about the costs. Council staff have said there is a risk of further cost blowouts.
Canterbury Employers’ Chamber of Commerce general manager Leeann Watson said she was disappointed with the councils decision and believed it was compromising the outcome of what should be a real asset to the city.
Ratepayers look set to pay a larger fee to secure major All Blacks games now, as New Zealand Rugby has said 25,000 seats would be too small for major matches, unless a substantial incentive fee was provided.
Stuff understands this fee could cost up to about $1.2m. With 30,000 seats, the fee would still need to be paid, but was thought to be closer to $800,000.
Financial implications of today’s decision as well as governance issues with the stadium were discussed behind closed doors to protect commercial sensitivity.
On Friday last week, the man overseeing the stadium project for the city council, Murray Strong, quit.
Stuff understands there were disagreements between senior council staff and the council-owned company that Strong was chairman of. One role, a project director for the stadium, would be disestablished on Friday.
