Auckland stadiums: Decision on Auckland’s premium stadium set to be announced this morning

A decision on the race to be Auckland’s premium stadium is set to be announced by Auckland Council this morning.

Nine months after Mayor Wayne Brown set up a working group to resolve what a multi-purpose “Auckland Main Stadium” would look like for the city, four proposals are in the running.

A vote of the wider council took place on Thursday and an announcement on the decision will be released at 9am.

Eden Park 2.0, a redevelopment option of the current national stadium, is believed to be the front runner. This would push the capacity to 60,000. There are also plans for a retractable roof, a new north stand, upgrades to two other grandstands and a pedestrian accessway crossing Sandringham Rd.

Eden Park's capacity would lift to 60,000 under the 2.0 vision. Image / Eden Park Trust

The other three proposals are:

• A 70,000-seat, fully enclosed stadium sunk into the Waitematā Harbour, next to Bledisloe Wharf, with a floating roof above sea level.
• A waterfront stadium precinct at Quay Park or Te Tōangaroa, backed by New Zealand Rugby, and including an All Blacks-branded hotel.
• A stadium and entertainment precinct at Wynyard Quarter encompassing the main 55,000-seat stadium, an indoor arena and an outdoor amphitheatre to view harbour events like SailGP.

An artist's impression of the proposed "sunken stadium" by Bledisloe Wharf.

Brown has made it clear any stadium options will be at “no cost to ratepayers” and, with no funding in the council’s 10-year budget to contribute to the hundreds of millions of dollars for a new stadium, council sources had been picking the status quo in Eden Park.

Today @AklCouncil votes on stadium options. Working group chair @HendoWest has apparently ruled out Wynyard + Bledisloe because council has "consulted on other plans" for those areas. What nonsense. The best options should go through, not the most administratively convenient

— Simon Wilson (@simonbwilson) May 29, 2024

Senior Herald writer Simon Wilson understood councillor Shane Henderson, chair of the working group set up to determine the main stadium for the city, ruled out the proposal for stadiums at Wynyard Quarter and Bledisloe Wharf because the council has “consulted on other plans” for those areas.

One industry expert told the Herald in February that the proposed main stadium, wherever it is ultimately placed, will need to have a minimum of 30 major events annually to break even and more than 40 to turn a profit.

That will mean that sporting content with anchor tenants such as the Warriors, Blues and the new Auckland A-League football team will be crucial given the fickle and complicated nature of entertainment events, especially large-scale concerts.

Wynyard Point consortium head Richard Dellabarca told Newstalk ZB’s Elliott Smith that the current set-up of four stadiums (Eden Park, Go Media Stadium Mt Smart, North Harbour Stadium and Western Springs) was unsustainable.

An aerial view of how the Wynard Point proposal would look on Auckland's waterfront. Image / Populous

Benjamin Plummer is an Auckland-based reporter who covers breaking news. He has worked for the Herald since 2022.