''I'm open to a discussion, but I don't know what the [funding] outcome would be,'' he said this week.
The Invercargill City Council voted 5-4 on Tuesday to take over the financially-troubled park from the Southland Outdoor Stadium Trust, which has loans and financial commitments of more than $1.1 million it cannot meet.
From July, the council expects to spend $290,000 a year from rates on operating and maintaining the park, but chief executive Richard King said the Southland and Gore district councils would be asked to contribute ''within the next 12 months''.
He had been asked to write a report on facilities which could be considered regional assets, and to come up with a suggested funding formula for three councils.
The formula could be distance-based, population-based or user-based, he said.
There was precedent for shared funding, he said, as all three councils already contributed to the Southland Museum and Art Gallery and the Southland District Council chipped in with $50,000 a year to ILT Stadium Southland.
Other regional facilities could include Invercargill's Civic Theatre and Gore's ice-skating rink, Mr King said.
Mr Hicks said he did not think Gore ratepayers ''would have an appetite'' for contributing to Rugby Park.
While he said he was ''very loath to discuss funding for one specific facility'', he was open to a wider investigation into regional assets and how they might be jointly funded.
''It would take quite a long time to work through and would not be easy. But there does need to be a regional discussion.''
Southland District Mayor Gary Tong said his council had not been asked to contribute to Rugby Park and ''had not been put in the picture'' about the implications of the city council taking over ownership.
''There could have been more collaboration and communication before we got to this point.''
He said if his council was formally asked to contribute, it would have to put a figure into its long-term plan budget and ''let ratepayers have their say''.
The city council may take over Rugby Park in as soon as two weeks, once a series of conditions is met.
One condition is the council paying the stadium trust $400,000 so it can repay a loan to the Community Trust of Southland.
The money would come from council reserves, Mr King said.
