Arena, metro sports outcome welcome

The Government’s confirmation that Christchurch will get a metro sports centre and most likely a roofed stadium is welcome news. The city has been without a competition 50-metre pool since 2011 and an entire cohort of primary school pupils has missed out on the joys of a spending a wet Sunday splashing and sliding at a major indoor leisure pool.

Two million visitors a year used the former QEII Park. It was home to 45 organisations. Doing without has been grindingly hard with each delay adding to the frustration of thousands, amongst them indoor sports such as netball and basketball which have been making do with substandard facilities.

Finally, yesterday the Government signalled the go-ahead for a pared-back version of the metro sports facility, with $50 million in savings found from last year’s design. The Government will pick up the extra cost of what is now looking like a $270m project, with the city council’s contribution capped at $147m.

But there is a lot of time to be made up. New contractors must be found and a deal signed within 12 months in order for the new facility to open in 2021 as promised. Further delays cannot be tolerated.

Yesterday’s announcement that Christchurch will get a standalone stadium, and it will likely be roofed, is also a cause for cautious celebration for city and tourism industry leaders as much as the rugby fraternity. The South Island’s biggest city must have a stadium if it is to attract tourists and give locals a place to come together be that an All Blacks test match or a big name music act. For 2018 has shown just how much we are missing out.

Christchurch hospitality outlets suffered through a quiet Easter as southern rivals enjoyed a tourism bonanza as 65,000 travelled to Dunedin for three sold-out Ed Sheeran shows at the Forsyth Barr Stadium. This week’s announcement that international hip-hop giant Kendrick Lamar would also play Dunedin this year served only to rub salt in the wounds.

And while the arguments for a roof have been loud and persistent, nothing made the case as powerfully as the hailstorm which pelted players and fans at the Crusaders v Sunwolves game last Saturday night.

The 2013 cost-sharing agreement between the council and the Crown forecast a 35,000-seater roofed stadium would cost

$290m, with the council contributing the bulk of this at $253m. The stadium, said the agreement, would ‘‘mainly host rugby and football’’ though would also ‘‘allow for entertainment events such as concerts’’.

Since then, the estimated cost of such a stadium has more than doubled. A feasibility study put the cost for four stadium variations at between $368m and $584m, with the original blueprint hopes of a roofed 35,000 seat stadium likely to cost close to

$600m.

So it remains unclear how the new stadium will be paid for or when it will be built.

Greater Christchurch Regeneration Minister Megan Woods has said a fast-tracked business case for the stadium will determine its style and size and suggested the council consider bring the stadium timetable forward as part of its long-term plan (LTP).

The council has currently earmarked money to build the stadium between 2022 and 2025. But this week Mayor Lianne Dalziel said she was ‘‘tending to favour’’ an earlier build.

There is no doubt the city is hurting and needs the stadium sooner rather than later.

But at what cost? Will other sorely-needed projects have to be delayed? The question will need to be settled before the LTP is adopted at the end of June.