The journey towards a definitive solution to Auckland’s stadium issues has moved a step forward, after a series of presentations to a council working group in December last year.
The panel, set up in September 2023 by Mayor Wayne Brown, is tasked with finding the best long-term option for a main stadium in the city and then making a non-binding recommendation to the wider council. The working group are scheduled to meet in the next month before forwarding its recommendations to the council by the end of March. The governing body are expected to vote on the preferred stadium option around April-May.
Eight interested parties submitted expressions of interest earlier last year but that field has since narrowed. The final quartet of proposals on the table, each the subject of 75-minute presentations in December, are:
- Eden Park 2.0. This option sees a redevelopment of the historic venue, pushing the capacity to 60,000. There are plans for a retractable roof, a new north stand, upgrades to two other grandstands and a pedestrian accessway crossing Sandringham Rd.
- Waterfront Arena Aotearoa. This proposal, first mooted by the Waterfront Consortium in 2018, is centred on a 50,000-seat facility at Bledisloe Wharf, which can be increased to 70,000, and has become known as the “sunken stadium”.
- The Tank Farm. Based at Wynyard Point, this is the newest proposal, believed to be based on a 50,000-60,000 capacity, transforming the former industrial wasteland into a downtown arena.
- Quay Park. This bid, which first surfaced in 2021, is a 50,000-capacity stadium that can be scaled down to 20,000 for smaller events, the first artists designs of this proposal were revealed by the Herald last week. The stadium is envisioned to be part of a new sports and entertainment precinct at the eastern end of the waterfront, in the vicinity of Spark Arena.