Bid to cut seats from Christchurch stadium after budget blowout on concept

Tuesday, 20 July 2021

An artist’s impression of one potential design for Christchurch’s new stadium. (File photo)

Christchurch's multimillion-dollar covered stadium may now be built with fewer than 30,000 seats – meaning the city would have to pay more to attract major All Blacks matches.

The consortium behind multi-use arena wants to reduce seating capacity due a budget blowout on the concept, forecast to cost between $561.8m to $604.4m

An initial preferred concept, developed before appointing a contractor, suggested it should have 25,000 permanent seats with room to add 5000 temporary seats – creating a 30,000 capacity.

However, this concept was now significantly over budget. The increase was down to what the council called 'astronomical” rises in the cost of materials and international shipping.

Frank Film looks at the last-ditch effort to save a heritage building from the giant footprint of Christchurch’s new multi-arena stadium.

* New company will manage Christchurch's $473m stadium build

* Christchurch's $470m stadium plan revealed: 25,000 seats, finished in 5 years

A newly recommended design option, within the $473m budget, would reduce capacity to 25,000, with decisions to be made at a later stage about how much of this would be permanent, retractable or temporary seating.

The stadium will be built across three city blocks, bordered by Madras, Hereford, Barbadoes, and Tuam streets.

Further investigation will look at whether design efficiencies can be found to allow the capacity to go to 27,500 while remaining in budget.

A council staff report, outlining the proposed change, said New Zealand Rugby had told the council while 25,000 seats was acceptable for some matches, it would be too small for rugby matches against Australia, South Africa or the Lions, 'unless a substantial incentive fee is provided”.

The council’s head of recreation sport and events, Nigel Cox, told Stuff it might be a far smarter way to attract those major games by paying a larger fee, instead of building to a capacity that would only be filled once a year.

Cox said seat numbers were not the only factor in decisions about awarding major games.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern (red jacket) with Christchurch mayor Lianne Dalziel (left) last year, on the land set aside for the stadium.

He pointed to the experience the stadium would provide, given the design allowed it to be covered, with good seating sizes, lines of sight and a U-shaped concourse – which would give a better flow of people around the stadium.

Crusaders chief executive Colin Mansbridge said 25,000 or 27,500 seats would be sufficient for most Crusaders games, except a final, which he thought could sell 30,000 tickets.

'The big issue is All Blacks … as you start taking capacity out for [an] All Blacks test, it gets a bit problematic.'

National's former earthquake recovery minister Gerry Brownlee believed the council should have an agreement with New Zealand Rugby about the frequency of major matches.

'It would be a big deal if New Zealand Rugby decided we were off the schedule.'

The stadium needed to give life to the city and he wanted to ensure it did not become a 'forever burden' with limited usage.

The proposed 25,000 to 27,500 capacity is less than other New Zealand stadiums.

Auckland’s Eden Park can seat just under 50,000, Wellington's Sky Stadium has 34,500 seats, and Dunedin's Forsyth Barr stadium seats nearly 31,000.

City councillor James Gough said he was always worried about the capacity issue – and he wondered if the council needed to explore raising more budget, instead of just changing design elements.

Deputy mayor Andrew Turner was comfortable with the proposed design change and said the 25,000 seats, along with the concourse and quality seating, would provide an experience people expected.

“I'd rather have a 25,000 seat stadium that works economically and that works in terms of the experience… [rather] than go for 30,000 seats and have a sub-optimal experience.”

The proposed stadium design could still host 36,000 for concerts. It would have a concrete slab at the southern end of the pitch for hosting concerts. The slab would stop concerts from being set up on the pitch, significantly reducing the risk of the turf being damaged.

This slab was where the 2500 seats – that could be added on top of the 25,000 – could go.

The funding agreement for the stadium has a requirement that the stadium has a minimum of 22,500 permanent seats.

The Government has provided $220m to the stadium and the council will fund the remaining $253m.

Cox said at the moment, the stadium was delayed by about four to eight weeks.

Whether the change in capacity would have any further delays would be known once the preliminary design work was under way.

Christchurch City councillors will meet for an extraordinary meeting on Thursday to discuss signing off the proposed changes to the concept design, which would allow preliminary design work to begin.

If councillors give sign-off to the changes, the preliminary design should be completed by the end of 2021.