Cantabrians to be asked for stadium funding, may face levy on tickets

Saturday, 26 August 2023

Te Kaha is estimated to cost about $144 per ratepayer each year once it’s open. The council is hoping regional Cantabrians will pitch in. (Digital render)

Cantabrians as far south as Waitaki could face a levy on tickets to events at Christchurch’s Te Kaha stadium if their councils refuse to contribute to the running costs.

That’s an idea being pitched by Christchurch city councillor Sam MacDonald and mayor Phil Mauger, who see the city’s $683 million stadium as an asset that benefits the region at large.

MacDonald said a small contribution per dwelling would pale in comparison to cost of travel and accommodation to attend major events in Auckland or Dunedin.

“Quite simply, if your councils are not prepared to chip in on your behalf, then there needs to be a cost associated with that,” he said.

“It’s not right that people living 20 minutes from town, who don’t live in the district, are getting use of the facilities for nothing, when actually the people of Christchurch are bearing the brunt of that in their rates.”

Mauger said neighbouring councils could set up a targeted rate, like they currently did for the Canterbury Museum redevelopment.

Despite the museum contributions being a legal requirement, Mauger was hopeful neighbours would agree there was a regional benefit.

He said it could work out at just cents per week per ratepayer, and would not be as much as what Christchurch ratepayers would pay.

Christchurch City councillor Sam MacDonald says it makes sense for Cantabrians to help pay for the stadium they’ll benefit from.

“If we don’t ask, we’ll never know.”

Without outside support, the average Christchurch ratepayer is estimated to fork out $144 a year in operational costs, which in 2019 was expected to be $4.2m a year more than what Te Kaha would earn.

However the region’s mayors, who are loosely aware of the pending request, aren’t sure their residents will be on board.

“I’m just wondering what developments they’ll pay for up in our area,” Kaikōura mayor Craig Mackle said.

He and other mayors The Press spoke to said they would reserve judgment until a formal request was presented - and in any case, his council would put it through a full public consultation process with residents - but on the face of it Mackle was not convinced, and thought a levy made more sense.

Selwyn mayor Sam Broughton, on the other hand, did not think a levy for out-of-towners was the way to go.

“We don’t put gates on our facilities to stop people from Christchurch coming to use them … there’s part of what we do for the good of our community and those around us.”

He said big facilities needed as many ticket sales as possible, and he questioned how putting barriers in the way would help.

Selwyn mayor Sam Broughton agrees the stadium is a regional asset, but says questions about regional contributions could have been raised sooner.

He was not opposed on principle to the district contributing funds, but said if the city council considered it a regional asset “I would expect a regional conversation from the very beginning, about the need and the design of those things, rather than just about the funding at the bottom end of the discussion”.

Even Waitaki, where the majority of the population lived in Otago but the majority of the land was in Canterbury, will be asked to contribute towards the stadium.

Discussing the funding of another city’s stadium is old news for the district, with mayor Gary Kircher saying Waitaki contributed to the capital costs of Dunedin’s Forsyth Barr Stadium over a decade ago.

He said it was a fair acknowledgement of the benefit the stadium would bring to the Otago region, but contributing to another local body’s stadium indefinitely was a different story.

“We really want to count ourselves out. We already gave you Richie McCaw, we don’t want to give you money for the stadium as well.

“There’s no doubt that Christchurch will get the lion’s share of the economic benefit, as Dunedin does.”

The Waimakariri district is the only Canterbury council that pays more rates on average than Christchurch, according to the Taxpayer Union’s latest ratepayer report ($3175 compared to $2998).

Its mayor, Dan Gordon, said his council had not received an official request for funding support and had not set money aside for it. Any change would be subject to consultation, he said.

Leah Scales, the Christchurch City Council’s chief financial officer, said the council had approached at least eight of the nine Canterbury councils about Te Kaha in the lead up to long-term planning season.

Now the long-term plan process has begun, conversations with those councils about the stadium had started, she said.