The recommendation comes as Venues Ōtautahi chief executive Caroline Harvie-Teare this week responded to claims the cities were working together behind the scenes by saying big acts will only play in one South Island city, and Dunedin would inevitably lose out.
On Tuesday, councillors will be presented with a paper recommending significant spending on its major events strategy.
The paper suggests the council’s present events delivery budget of $569,900 a year was "insufficient to address rising costs or support new initiatives, limiting the plan’s potential without additional investment".
As a result, council staff suggest ramping up the budget to $1,218,500 in the 2026-27 financial year, and $1.64m and $1.54m in the following financial years.
The approach will capitalise "on opportunities to strengthen Dunedin’s events sector while Christchurch’s new stadium establishes itself".
Other advantages from this approach included providing "long-term growth and stability for the event sector through strategic investment" and positioning Dunedin "to attract and retain high-value major events".
Going for a scaled-down option, focusing mainly on community events would "limit the impact on Dunedin’s global and national profile with a portfolio of largely local events".
It would also be a "missed opportunity to capitalise on Christchurch’s stadium development period to strengthen the local events sector and ensure we retain our local talent in the sector".
Council staff said the status quo approach to event promotion and planning could lead to a "possible stagnation of the city events portfolio", risk a reliance on the Forsyth Barr Stadium as the primary venue for major events, and decrease potential to attract and retain high-value major events.
The plan proposes diversifying the event strategy, hosting major events beyond Forsyth Barr Stadium "to strengthen destination marketing and reduce single point dependence on one-off concerts and sports events, in favour of a city-wide strategy to develop a year-round calendar of events spread across venues throughout the city".
The council is also working through a range of plans, including the Ōtepoti Dunedin Destination Plan and the Ōtepoti Live Music Action Plan, alongside the event strategy in a bid to better plan and implement more major events.
Christchurch’s Te Kaha stadium is budgeted to cost more than $680 million, and construction of the arena is estimated to be completed by mid-2026.
Recently, Dunedin Mayor Jules Radich told the Otago Daily Times closed-door conversations between the two cities on collaboration had taken place, but declined to say to whom he had spoken.
He maintained it made sense for the two cities to work together rather than engage in bidding wars.
