Maurice Williamson: Auckland Councillor on the stadium debate

Neither of two options for Auckland's main stadium are entirely feasible.  

Auckland Council staff say feasibility studies for either an upgraded Eden Park or a new stadium at Quay Park found both lacking.  

The report says the Eden Park option would not be financially feasible without council or central Government funding, and Quay Park has optimistic assumptions around infrastructure and construction costs.  

Auckland Councillor Maurice Williamson told Andrew Dickens he’s questioning why the council is being brought into it. 

He says the Mayor has made it clear the council won’t be contributing financially. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right. The organ stadium debate, Wayne Brown said, let's
just put this to bed was heating up. Thursday. They're
going to have a council vote on this and the
officials have received a report on the two options, and
that report warns that both Eden Park and Key Parks
proposals aren't feasible without public funding. Eden Park two point zero,
for instance, will require at least one hundred and ten

(00:21):
million dollars alone from Central Government for its initial stage
one plan and that's just the North stand. So Marris
Williamson is an organd councilor who will be sitting around
the table on Thursday and trying to make a decision
about all of this and joins us out. Good moody
to you, Morris.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
Good funding.

Speaker 1 (00:36):
Of course, they're not feasible without public investment. Wasn't that
a given right from the start?

Speaker 2 (00:43):
Yeah? I would have thought so. They are huge projects
with huge sums of money, and I would have thought, well,
I've still got a lot of questions. So as you
can understand, we haven't had our meeting yet, and one
of my questions is why are we involved in this
if these people are going to do it themselves and
they can fund it and so on. Well, then we
don't need to be involved. And if we are being

(01:03):
involved and we're saying, well, we're not going to fund anything,
it's almost sort of a double entendre here, I.

Speaker 1 (01:09):
Think absolutely, and yet Wayne Brown said let's put this
to bed, let's do this's come up with a decision.
And yet at the same time it appears if you
don't want to be part of the public funding of
it all, it's never going anywhere. This has been a
waste of time.

Speaker 2 (01:23):
Well, my question, I think I want to answer it
on Thursday is why are we being brought into this now?
We can obviously provide some assistance by way of consenting
and helping along the way that might assist the speed
of it, But there are huge chunks of money. If
you look at Eden Park two point one, they're talking

(01:43):
about five hundred million minimum to do this stage one,
two and then the retractable roof stage three. So again,
I mean it's pretty clear. I think that the mayor
has made it clear in his statements that there will
be no funding from the council, So I guess the
proposal still got the ability to go to central government.

(02:05):
But I wouldn't like the chances there either.

Speaker 1 (02:07):
But here's the thing. Eden Park rebranded itself as New
Zealand's national stadium, which every other stadium went what. But
that's okay, it's a branding thing. We need a national stadium,
we need a focus for a country. We're what five
and a half million, it's like being a city. We're
competing against Australia. Shouldn't the government actually be stepping in
and saying, right, this is the main stadium for the country.

Speaker 2 (02:31):
Well, much as I would love to speak on behalf
of the government and make big decisions, I really don't
think I should. It'll be up to them to decide. Now.
There are enormous economic benefits that can happen from these,
because huge events can bring in massive tourism and spending
and hotel bed nights and so on. And you can
actually sometimes put a spreadsheet together which shows an investment

(02:54):
of a few hundred million can get you back multiple
numbers of that. But that would be for central government
to make a decision. I think a council while we're
sitting on a close to fifteen billion of debt, while
we're struggling to how to pay bills, and while we're
trying not to make the ratepayers pay rates and increases
that make your eyes water, we really haven't got an

(03:16):
ability to start playing in this game as well.

Speaker 1 (03:19):
And what are your constituents saying to you? What's the
public saying to you when you're out?

Speaker 2 (03:22):
And about everybody I talked to is keen on Eden Park.
There's a sort of a love affair with Eden Park
based on its history, where it's been my concern about
anything that was to be built down on the waterfront,
and it's a pretty sensible concern, I think, is that
if you build on the waterfront, you want something that's

(03:43):
looking out, you know, the harbor view. So you build
apartments and restaurants and hotels and they all got their
glass windows looking at the beautiful view. That's its value.
But if you build a stadium, it's looking in. You
go and sit down in your seat and you're looking
at the grass inside. So I would have thought the
last thing you would do is build a big stadium

(04:04):
down on the waterfront, which is main feature is it's
phenomenal view of the most iconic harbor going. So I'm
a big fan of the old history of Eden Park.
But you know we've got to have an open mind
when we're brief, but my very first question is, if
we're not funding this, why are we considering this at all?

Speaker 1 (04:22):
Good question, Marris Williamson, have a good meeting on Thursday.

Speaker 2 (04:26):
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