Auckland stadium plan ‘realistic’

Auckland Mayor Phil Goff is being praised by his Dunedin counterpart for being ‘‘realistic’’ about a billion dollar replacement for Eden Park stadium.

Goff has said that he would rather build a whole new stadium, on Ngati Whatua land next to Vector Arena, than invest an estimated $250 million more on upgrading Eden Park over the next 15 years.

He stressed that private investment would be required and he hoped the Government would also contribute to the project.

Based on experience with Dunedin’s controversial Forsyth Barr stadium - dubbed the House of Pain - Dunedin Mayor Dave Cull said that Goff has been wise to tell people he wants the stadium, but that the council doesn’t have the $1billion needed for it from the outset.

‘‘We had a very traumatic process because in the end our stadium couldn’t be funded the way it had been sold to the public,’’ he said.

The troubled Dunedin stadium ended up $62million over budget.

Cull said that the Dunedin stadium’s ‘‘wildly optimistic’’ projections meant that the council had to cut capital funding into the future to free up funds.

He said that the biggest lesson Goff could learn from Dunedin’s stadium saga was not to let financial projections become ‘‘part of marketing’’.

‘‘It certainly doesn’t seem to me that Mr Goff is going out and saying ‘this is going to be easy, we’ve got the money’ - in fact he’s quite clearly saying Auckland doesn’t have the money,’’ said Cull.

‘‘That’s really realistic.’’

Goff said that while Auckland wouldn’t be seeing a new stadium ‘‘within the next 10 years’’, the city’s projected growth to 2.5 million residents by 2030 would entail a bigger international stadium eventually.

He said that planning should start now, to preserve the option of Ngati Whatua owned railway land for a bigger, better stadium - the only waterfront site left available for a stadium.

But Goff’s defeated mayoral rival Vic Crone has labelled his stadium scheme an ‘‘unnecessary distraction.’’

‘‘A new stadium certainly wouldn’t be my priority,’’ she added. ‘‘I find the timing very weird.’’

‘‘Mr Goff [isn't] going out and saying 'this is going to be easy, we've got the money' - in fact he's quite clearly saying Auckland doesn't have the money.’’