Pressure on council to fund covered stadium
You could virtually hear the sporting community’s collective sigh of relief reverberate across Christchurch, as the Regeneration Minister pressed go on the Metro Sports Facility.
Friday’s welcome announcement from Megan Woods is particularly laudable for stripping $50 million in fripperies from the facility’s design, while safeguarding the integrity of its sporting functionality, now back on track for a 2021 opening.
In deference to the overwhelming clamour for stadium certainty, Woods – in concert with Mayor Lianne Dalziel – has sought to assuage public opinion by announcing that the business case to determine its size and style is being fast-tracked.
Woods can’t say as much, but the May 17 Budget will confirm the $300 million capital acceleration fund for the city council, in which $100 million will be ear-marked for the stadium. As previously signalled, the other $200 million will be split between residential red zone projects and land drainage work.
Last week, Dalziel agreed to consider bringing forward the council’s $253 million capital commitment to the stadium in its Long Term Plan. It would be a major change in tune for Dalziel’s leftiedominated council who deliberately stalled the project by kicking its funding as far down the road as possible, three years ago.
Under their last Long Term Plan in 2015, they voted to deny Christchurch any hope of seeing a new stadium completed until 2025, deferring the release of their funding obligation until 2022-2025.
The blame for the project’s protracted delay can be firmly sheeted home to them. So now the pressure is rightly on the council to reverse that dopey decision, and bring forward the funding by three years.
Assuming the business case is completed within six months and construction commences on the Madras St site next year, a three to four year build would suggest the best-case scenario for completing the construction on a roofed Canterbury arena is 2022-23.
The oral submissions to the city council’s Long Term Plan are underway and it’s noteworthy that the first submitter today is Selwyn Mayor Sam Broughton. Courageously, Broughton will double down on his council’s willingness to contribute to the capital costs of the stadium.
On Sunday Broughton told me, ‘‘I encourage the city to bring forward its funding and kick on with leading the build. I see it as a facility in Christchurch for Canterbury.
‘‘The events that the arena will host are of benefit to Canterbury and will be attended by people from Selwyn. I believe the model should include regional funding from Canterbury, including Selwyn.
‘‘This could be by a targeted rate administered by ECan and could work in a similar way to how the Canterbury Museum is currently funded by Selwyn, Christchurch, Waimakariri and Hurunui.’’
As I’ve previously argued, I believe the city’s neighbouring councils should be levied a combined $40-50 million contribution, given they comprise 20 per cent of our population.
Such a contribution would take the combined public funding pool for the arena to over $400 million, with the potential for private investment to address any capital shortfall, through adjoining ventures on the footprint of the land that is earmarked for the stadium.
Don’t be sucked in by the council’s disingenuous presentation of the rates track in the draft Long Term Plan – the truth is that they are proposing an average annual rates rise in 2018/19 of over 6 per cent, not 5.5 per cent, when you factor in the proposed funding for the cathedral and ChristchurchNZ’s additional $1.4M funding bid. The latter deserves to be supported if Christchurch is serious about courting a regular roster of major concerts and sporting events to the city.
But the untenable size of the rates track, this year and beyond, reinforces the gaping need for renewed fiscal discipline.
I’ll leave the challenge of cutting costs and demanding greater efficiency at council to next week’s column, but the lingering option of capital release from council-owned assets needs to be reinserted on the city’s agenda.
If councillors genuinely want to ensure the city’s infrastructure deficit is aggressively tackled now – not in 10 or 20 years, whether it be smoothing roads or completing major facilities, freeing up $500 million in capital release, to front-foot the infrastructure tail, deserves fresh and serious consideration.
During the last election, Dalziel virtuously trumpeted that her council had actually increased its asset base, by buying up shares in Lyttelton Port and the government’s stake of Enable.
Now is the time for a partial release, to bend the arc on rates rises and ease the council’s maxed-out debt loading.