Dunedin Ice Stadium management will stick to the stadium's 1000-person limit after having its "hand smacked" for exceeding the allowed capacity during an ice hockey match earlier this month.
The Victoria Rd stadium has an official capacity of 1000, but at least 2890 tickets were sold to the recent US v Canada game.
Ticket holders were angry when they arrived to find there were insufficient seats, and concerned to see stairwells and walkways blocked or semi-blocked by people sitting in them.
Complaints about safety were lodged with the Dunedin City Council and the overselling of tickets with the Commerce Commission.
Stadium manager Neil Gamble said he received a visit from the council's building control team and the Fire Service in the days after the match.
Because it does not have any smoke detector system fitted, the stadium is limited to a maximum 1000 people.
If more fire protection systems were installed, the capacity could be increased.
But the stadium could not afford to install the $180,000 smoke detector system required to increase the capacity, Mr Gamble said.
The council's chief building control officer, Neil McLeod, said the council was happy there were adequate systems in place to cope with up to 1000 people being in the stadium at one time.
If it breached its warrant of fitness conditions and went over that capacity, the stadium could be liable for a maximum fine of $100,000, but being notified after the event made the exact issues difficult to prove.
Mr Gamble was issued a notice to fix, with four requirements, and the council was waiting until those things were done before deciding on any further action, Mr McLeod said.
He said it appeared stadium staff were prepared to deal with a crowd of 1000, but were overwhelmed by the number that turned up that night, and could not respond adequately.
Mr Gamble said the Fire Service had also required that the stadium upgrade its evacuation plan, and a consultant had been engaged to do that work.
Other fire systems in the stadium worked well and staff were trained and did regular fire drills.
It was a "crying shame" the building was limited to 1000 people, particularly during the Winter Games, but that was how it was going to have to be.
"We've had our hand smacked, and we will comply with the requirements," Mr Gamble said.
He accepted the responsibility for keeping the 1000 limit in place had ultimately been his, as the venue manager, and not the promoter's; although the promoter had arranged ticket sales for the event.
The complaint to the Commerce Commission about the tickets being oversold for the event had been assessed as not being an issue under the Fair Trading Act, a Commerce Commission spokeswoman said.
She said an assessment had not found there was any intent to mislead.
The issue was more of a contractual one, and anyone who wanted a refund would probably have to take their case to the disputes tribunal or somewhere similar.
