A community stadium. This decade, the next, or never?

Community engagement in July 2023 showed initial support for a proposed community stadium at Tauranga/Wharepai Domain, especially from our under-50s. Now we want to know what you think about a staged delivery approach that would see the project start in 2029/30.

The issue

As one of New Zealand’s fastest growing cities we want to create community spaces where people can come together to do the things they love.

One piece of key infrastructure our sub-region lacks is a modern, fit-for-purpose community stadium. Following a feasibility study in May 2022, the Council agreed that the Tauranga/Wharepai Domain would potentially be a good location for a community stadium. A preliminary business case, developed by Priority One, identified that the construction of the proposed stadium would bring numerous social and economic benefits to Tauranga City.

Community engagement in July 2023 showed there was sufficient initial support for the proposal to take it to the next step. We’ve done more work and we now have a clearer picture of how we could fund the stadium’s construction. And now we want to know what you think.

What we’re proposing

The proposed stadium would be multi-use and meet the needs of the community, clubs, local cultural events, festivals, professional sports and commercial concerts.

Having a stadium like this at the Domain would support our aspiration to revitalise the city centre, but we don’t want to bite off more than we can chew, so we are proposing to deliver the stadium via a staged approach that wouldn’t start until to the end of this decade. This would mean building parts of the stadium over time and include relocating the athletics track (when it has reached its end-of-life), moving the lawn bowls club, and in the medium-term, retaining the croquet and tennis clubs.

Staging the implementation would allow Council to finish significant projects already underway in the city, such as the Civic precinct – Te Manawataki o te Papa, before work on the stadium began.

Crunching the numbers

Building the community stadium in a staged approach starting in 2029/30 would require an investment of $81 million (plus the cost of relocating of existing users) of capital expenditure, with $46 million coming from rates-funded loans and $35 million from other sources. From 2031, the median residential property would have a $64 per year rates increase to pay for this project, while annual rates for a median commercial/industrial property would increase $290. There would also be an increase in the overall project investment due to the staged nature of design and delivery.