Leeann Watson: Business Canterbury CEO on the opening of the One NZ Stadium

Christchurch bars, restaurants and retailers are preparing for a bumper weekend with the city's new stadium playing host to its first crowds. 

One NZ Stadium hosts Super Rugby’s Super Round over the next three days, with the Crusaders taking on the Waratahs in the opening match tonight. 

Recent alcohol law changes mean hospitality venues can now open past midnight and sell alcohol without serving meals. 

Business Canterbury Chief Executive Leeann Watson told Ryan Bridge that the stadium will bring people into the city and have them spend locally, which is exactly what they want.  

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
One in zed stadium. It's Takaha kicking off with a
super bang FORANZAC weekend the Super Rugby Super Round ten
teams back to back games. Lee and Watson, chief executive
at Business Canterbury, joins me this morning, Get Alien, good morning,
very exciting weekend ahead for you. How many are you expecting?
What sort of activity in the city.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Oh, look, it'll be certainly a full house at the stadium,
So twenty five thousand people will be flowing out of
that stadium after the very first game tonight, and that
is a moment that christ Church in Canary has been
waiting for for a very long time. So it's a
super exciting day. But of course it is also just
the beginning for the city.

Speaker 1 (00:35):
Yeah, because you've got six sixty and may haven't you?
You got Robbie Williams coming later this year. Anything else
that you want to announce to us this morning.

Speaker 2 (00:45):
If I knew, maybe, but I don't. But look, I
think you know, this is a really exciting time. You know,
we know that the central city was largely sort of
rebuilt and that was the private sector. You know, we
had businesses and private investors you know, really commit early
and get into the central city and so this is
real payback for those businesses now that the stadium is

(01:06):
about to open and we will see not only our
own people from christ Chuch and Canterary in the South
Island coming, but those from the North Island. Have tried
to get a flight back from Willington last night. All
of them were full. It's a really great sign so
that it will bring people into the city and spending
money locally, which is exactly what we want.

Speaker 1 (01:21):
Leanne, Are you seeing businesses make decisions about where to
locate themselves that sort of thing now that the stadium's
being built, Oh.

Speaker 2 (01:30):
Look, definitely, but that's been happening for years actually, which
is good and as I said before, the private sector,
you know, really lead the redevelopment of the central city
on the basis that we were going to have the
stadium right in the heart of you know what is
now our world class central city. So people are still
making those decisions. You know, spoken to a number of
businesses that have got themselves positioned pretty close to the

(01:51):
stadium as well, and they'll no doubt be hosting clients
before the game tonight. So it's a real draw card.
It puts christ Uch back on the world stage. It
also bringing forces of course that you know, christ Church
is now a new, modern, ambitious city full of opportunity,
and that's great for our investors' scrateful businesses who are
looking to move here and also looking for people that

(02:14):
are wanting to move into christ chut I'm trying to
This really is more than just a piece of infrastructure
in the central city totally.

Speaker 1 (02:21):
It's sort of the icing on the cake, really, isn't
it for In terms of your entertainment, Leanne? What about
the hotel situation? Hotel and accommodation, have you got enough
of it in christ Church. I've been trying to book
tickets to stay.

Speaker 2 (02:33):
I've got it.

Speaker 1 (02:33):
I'm coming to the concert, but I have been trying
to book a hotel and shit, things are a bit tight.

Speaker 2 (02:39):
Yeah, yeah, and look absolutely they are pretty tight. There's
a positive situation to have. We've obviously got you know,
the new Sheraitan hotel being built at the moment, that's
imminent and so there is more beds coming, which I
think we will definitely need. And that's a good sign that,
you know, we've got people who are wanting to come.

(03:00):
We hope that we can make sure we've got different
options of animal people, but I think that is deffinitely coming.

Speaker 1 (03:05):
LeAnn Watson, Chief Executive Business Canterbury. Time is twenty two
minutes after five.

Speaker 2 (03:10):
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