City councillors made a u-turn on Thursday, opting to forge ahead with a 30,000-seat Christchurch stadium.
Councillors reversed the decision they made at an extraordinary meeting last month to cut the number of seats by 5000, from 30,000 to 25,000, after a funding shortfall.
Last month's move sparked anger from residents and businesses, leading to a group of councillors putting forward an amendment to keep to the original design plan. Nearly 24,000 people also signed an online petition calling for the decision to be reversed.
And it was later revealed adding another 5000 seats to the stadium, in line with the original plan, would cost about $50 million, rather than the $67m figure released by the council last week, or the $88m cost councillors based their decision on at last month's vote.
If the $50m cannot be found elsewhere, Christchurch ratepayers will end up paying an additional $13.70 each year for 29 years from 2024-25.
Two councillors voted against the 30,000-seat option on Thursday - Crs Sara Templeton and Yani Johanson. Templeton said she would rather see the money spent on services such as health and well-being, while Johanson would rather see the new arena built at the old Lancaster Park site.
ChristchurchNZ said today a 30,000-seat stadium would generate more economic benefits for the city. It said a 30,000-seat stadium would bring in $12.5m more over 10 years than a 25,000-seat stadium, based on four major events a year.
Commodore hotel co-owner Michael Patterson said the council needed to invest in the city’s future. He said just a few capacity events a year in a bigger stadium would have a huge economic impact on the city.
Central City Business Association chairwoman Annabel Turley said its members felt the smaller 25,000-seat option was a let down.
City developer and building owner Shaun Stockman said a 25,000-seat stadium would not cut the cake.
Christchurch Employers' Chamber of Commerce Chief Executive Leeann Watson said 30,000 seats would benefit the city the most.
Adding five thousand seats would cost an additional $50m to the present budget of $473m.
Councillor Sam Macdonald was among those pushing for the decision to be reversed.
Macdonald said that extra $50m would not fall on residents.
"I think it's outrageous that the government wouldn't look to support this. I don't think it's unreasonable for us to go back to them," he said.
"Secondly, we do need to work with their neighbouring councils. What's become clear is that actually the mayors haven't been approached in that respect.
"Thirdly, we actually have a parcel of land that the current Orange Theory stadium sits on. We could commit that in five years time to disposal, which we believe would go some way to bridging that gap."
Mayor Lianne Dalziel has stressed the decision made today has to be the end of the matter.
Reaction from Canterbury mayors
Ashburton Mayor Neil Brown said the council would consider helping.
"(But) we haven't seen any plans, we've had no information directly to council on it at all. So, getting a question at the tail end of the process, because they need some money, feels like we've just been left out of the process and then contacted because they want to build a bigger stadium.
"That process should have started right at the front," he said.
Waimakariri Mayor Dan Gordon said he was open to talking about it - but that conversation would need to include all Canterbury councils.
He was also not sure what contribution could be made.
"The present position of our council is that we have no funding allocation in our long term plan. Importantly, we would need to discuss this with the Waimakariri community, before coming to any position."
The original budget for the project was $473m.
The Crown has already contributed $220m, as well as paying for the land itself, before paying another $10m to decontaminate it.
And as for more central government cash, Finance Minister Grant Robertson has ruled that out.
"We've put in a very significant contribution, nearly $270 million," he said.
"We believe that's an appropriate contribution for the Crown to put in. You know, we want to work closely on the delivery of this very important asset, but I think you'd understand that level of contribution is a pretty big one already."
Mayor Lianne Dalziel has stressed the decision made today has to be the end of the matter.
-Additional reporting RNZ
