Stadium Southland made public plans for the new $14 million stadium on Friday as part of its "Game on 2012" campaign, aiming to have the stadium re-built by March 2012, following the roof collapse on September 18 last year.
"We've gone away a little bit from the sports venue to a civic, entertainment centre," Stadium Southland manager Nigel Skelt told NZPA.
"Whilst it will have all the sporting attributes that we must have, the theatre situation is quite crucial to us too."
The stadium would seat about 800 more people than the previous building.
Piling work was expected to begin in three weeks.
As that was happening the main contract would be let so the main construction could begin towards the end of March, Mr Skelt said.
"We've only got a year to go to our D-day, it's getting a bit tight.
"[But] in about three weeks we'll be ready to rock 'n' roll."
An awful lot of work had been done to ensure the stadium roof would not collapse again, he said.
The new stadium would have twice as much steel as the original building and piling was to be put in 15m deep and 1m wide -- a feature the old building did not have.
The project has an initial budget of $13,190,000 and a $750,000 contribution from the Southland Indoor Leisure Centre Charitable Trust.
