Good news for metro sports and stadium
Another chapter in the ongoing saga of Christchurch’s anchor projects was written this week. Liz McDonald traces the recent history of two of the biggest, most troubled, developments.
Diggers are weeks away from breaking ground on Christchurch’s metro sports facility site after the Government confirmed the future of the much-delayed centre.
The Garden City is to get a trimmed-back metro sports centre, and a business case will be put together for a roofed stadium big enough for major events.
Sporting codes are celebrating the assurance on the desperately needed facilities after years of uncertainty and delays, but the opposition claims the Government has ‘‘achieved nothing other than a six-month delay on the project’’.
After halting work on the metro sports centre due to a $75 million cost blowout, the Government announced yesterday that it has redesigned it with the help of the Christchurch City Council, and will restart the project in time to complete it in late 2021.
Greater Christchurch Regeneration Minister Megan Woods said cosmetic changes and an altered contract process had carved at least $50m from the budget. Construction could be tendered out soon, confirming the price, she said.
Money will be saved on the metro sports centre by removing decorative features, substituting materials including replacing bluestone with concrete or tiles, reducing windows and skylights, removing an entrance canopy, downsizing the car park (though no parks will be lost), and removing the childcare centre and outdoor sports area.
The main sporting features will remain, including a 50-metre, 10-lane pool plus smaller pools, hydroslides, a gymnasium and fitness rooms, sports courts including nine netball courts, and fixed and retractable seating.
In November, it was revealed the $75m overrun had pushed the cost of the facility to $321m. The Crown will not reveal how far over-budget the project remains after the changes. Any extra funding required will be prioritised from existing unallocated Crown budgets.
Crown rebuild agency Otakaro will begin looking for a main contractor for the project shortly, hoping to have an agreement in place within 12 months. Earthworks are to begin in the interim, expected to start within 10 weeks.
The Government has rejected the possibility of incorporating metro sports features into the city’s new stadium.
Woods said a fast-tracked business case for the stadium, to be done by Otakaro, would determine its style and size; ‘‘but we foresee a roofed stadium large enough to allow the city to host
‘‘Christchurch is closer than ever to getting the stadium it needs and deserves.’’
Greater Christchurch Regeneration Minister Megan Woods
major test matches as well as entertainment events’’.
‘‘Christchurch is closer than ever to getting the stadium it needs and deserves.’’
The council also had the option of bring the stadium timetable forward, as part of its Long Term Plan, she said.
Christchurch Mayor Lianne Dalziel said the council had $253m for the stadium on its budget, but it is not available until 2022.
Dalziel said the council would consider moving the funding forward in the Long Term Plan, which is being finalised. She said a number of submissions on the plan had asked as much.
A stadium big enough for a major rugby test matches would need at least 30,000 seats. The cost has been estimated at up to $500m.
Netball Mainland chief executive Brigit Hearn said it had been ‘‘a long wait’’ but it was good to get clarity.
‘‘We’ve waited a very long time for specific indoor facilities, so it’s absolutely fantastic to see that the light’s at the end of the tunnel.’’
Sport Canterbury chief executive Julyan Falloon said the announcement ‘‘gives the sporting community some certainty’’. Waiting three more years was ‘‘not going to kill us, but it can’t be any longer’’.
More than seven years since the earthquakes and nearly five and a half years since the rebuild blueprint, the central city awaits its venues for watching, and participating in, sport.
The city’s new stadium, intended to replace AMI Stadium at Lancaster Park, and the metro sports centre, replacing QEII Park, will be funded in part from the Christchurch City Council’s insurance proceeds. Remaining costs will be funded by both ratepayers and taxpayers according to a cost-sharing agreement.
The council’s protracted insurance negotiations and the Crown’s 13-hectare land-buying project for both facilities have taken much longer than expected, and the complete stadium site is not yet in public hands. Prices for construction and associated professional services escalated in the meantime.
Both projects are needed to give the dream of thriving inner city residential and business populations a firm bedding.
First off the block has been the metro sports centre. Originally intended to be finished by the end of 2016, at the time of last year’s election it was at the final design stage and the site in preparation.
When the current Government took office, Greater Christchurch Regeneration Minister Megan Woods halted work on the project, citing a $75 million budget blowout, pushing the total cost to $321m. The design and build deal with contractors Leighs Cockram Joint Venture was called off.
The Crown commissioned a report from accountants KPMG into the feasibility of merging some facilities to save cash. The report recommended against the idea and it was dropped.
Crown and council then put their heads together for a redesign, and have now released a scaled back plan for the metro sports centre.
Some decorative features including fins on the outside of the building and an entrance canopy will go, materials including bluestone replaced with cheaper options such as concrete or tiles, windows and skylights reduced, the car park downsized and the childcare centre removed. An outdoor sports area will also go, and the fit-out of an aquatic sensory space for the disabled will be funded by alternative means.
The venue’s main sporting features will remain, including a 50-metre, 10-lane pool plus smaller pools, hydroslides, a gymnasium and fitness rooms, sports courts including nine netball courts, and fixed and retractable seating.
A final cost will not be known until construction is tendered out, which should be done by the end of the year. Earthworks on the site could resume in 10 to 12 weeks, Woods said.
The stadium was not meant to be one of the early anchor projects. The temporary 18,000-seat Addington stadium was intended to last until 2017. With a finish date for a new stadium set at as late as 2025, its lifespan has been pushed out.
But with All Black test matches and big music concerts bypassing the city and taking tens of millions of dollars of spending with them, frustration has grown.
A feasibility study into the stadium commissioned by the Christchurch Stadium Trust and released in August looked at the options and their various costs and financial returns.
It tossed around questions of oval versus rectangular shape, solid versus clear roof, permanent or moveable turf, fixed or some temporary seating, and the chances of attracting corporate sponsorship or investment.
The report estimated costs for its four selected combinations at between $368m and $584m and timeframes at between four and five-and-a-half years.
A roofed stadium big enough for major rugby test matches would need at least 30,000 seats.
Options rejected in the study on the grounds of cost included a retractable roof covering 35,000 seats at a cost of $690m, and the original blueprint choice of 35,000 permanent seats and 4000 temporary seats for an estimated $600m.
Woods said this week that a fasttracked business case for the stadium would determine its style and size, but both the Crown and council wanted a roofed stadium big enough for major test matches and concerts. All she could promise in terms of design was seating surrounding an area of grass.
The council has the option of bringing the stadium timetable forward as part of its Long Term Plan. This is something Mayor Lianne Dalziel has said was wanted by 70 per cent of public submitters on the issue, but was not a done deal.
Dalziel has also raised the suggestion that the stadium project could seek funding help from regional ratepayers.
For now, the go buttons on both anchor projects are pressed – at the tendering stage for the metro sports centre and the feasibility stage for the stadium.
But despite all the political and public will in favour of progress on both projects, sufficient uncertainty remains around funding and procurement to possibly stall progress on the central city’s sporting venues once again.