The CEO of the Canterbury Crusaders has shared the club's strongly worded submission on the next steps for Christchurch's new stadium. Photo / Supplied
Colin Mansbridge, the CEO of the Canterbury Crusaders, has shared the club's strongly worded submission on the next steps for the planned new stadium in Christchurch.
It comes after news the project will now cost up to $683 million.
There are three options for the stadium: increase the budget, scale back the project or halt it.
The council has agreed to seek the public's opinion.
Mansbridge shared the club's submission on social media.
"We believe Council needs to commit the $150m to enable the project to continue as planned [sic].
"Council is in possession of more than enough reports and information to make this decision. We plan to offer you no more. Council needs to retain the trust of its community through fulfilling the promises it and central Government have been making to its citizens for over a decade.
"Stopping is not an option. In the context of what's happened, it would not be honouring a promise."
Pausing and re-evaluating would be little better, the submission said.
"At best, it would result in more delays and likely suffer its own project design and management experience like the one the current design has had.
"To end up with a lesser multi-use arena that costs what we know this one will cost a year later than planned would be disastrous."
It said the club has made decisions on the "basis of central and local government promises".
"We have declined opportunities to go our own way, relocate and or build with a partner a smaller venue that would suit only us."
Yesterday it was revealed that 11,300 submissions had been received in the first four days of consultation on the future of the stadium.
Christchurch councillor Sara Templeton said she expected that number to steadily rise in the coming weeks.
"I think there's going to be a lot of engagement over the three weeks and I'm expecting a record-breaking number of submissions."
Templeton said she was encouraged by the public's strong initial engagement and thought councillors would need to keep open minds as they received submissions.
"The community often tell us there's no point in submitting because we've already made up our minds," she said.
"The various lobbying coming from external groups is great because everyone's got a stake in this."
- Additional reporting RNZ
Western Bay of Plenty District could have fewer councillors to vote for next election.