Auckland stadium debate: The sports leader with a history of raising cash who could get the job done – Paul Lewis

• The contest for Auckland’s “main stadium” ended with neither Eden Park nor Te Tōangaroa proving feasible without public funding.
• Eden Park’s upgrade is technically feasible, but requires $110 million from the Government for initial stages.
• Debate over sports stadiums in Auckland has dragged on for decades.

It’s been a long time since I witnessed anything quite as dumbass as Auckland Council making a “decision” to back the upgrade of Eden Park – but not putting any money up for it.

It was like me if I were to decide I was going to buy one of the most expensive cars in the world, the $8m Aston Martin Valkyrie. Lovely. Thank you. Sorted. Now can someone give me the money, please?

Unfortunately, it has ignited all the stadium-heads yet again – that constant parade of whining that Eden Park is too old, too far and too boring to be the “national stadium”. What about a shiny, new downtown stadium that will cost gazillions – but, as we all know, not as many gazillions as the final costs will blow out to be. $500 million? Terrific. Over a billion, did you say? $1.5b? Oh.

This has been going on since 2006, ahead of preparations for the 2011 Rugby World Cup here – when the then Government wanted to build a waterfront stadium rather than have Eden Park as World Cup HQ. Maybe it was a chance missed – but the bottom line was it was too expensive, too complicated and attracted plenty of political, public and legal opposition.

Typical Auckland. Typical New Zealand. We are shown a lovely artist’s render and video fly-through of a glittering new stadium and we go all gooey and reach for the credit cards, without factoring in the complexity and expense, and the question of who might bear the cost. Australia has one. Why don’t we? Look at all the marvellous stadiums in the US – a country awash in billionaires and vast sums of money New Zealand doesn’t have.

Eden Park has backing from the council.

Let’s face it – we are a tiny nation with not enough numbers to go building stadiums all over the place and we have missed our chances, many times, way before 2006. Auckland’s history is riddled with the Achilles heel of democracy – the procrastination of power. Governments and councils rely on being re-elected, so the power of doing nothing trumps the power of doing something that may prove electorally dangerous. Nothing happens.

If the rapid-rail scheme of the 1960s had been implemented, it would have been the basis of what would now be a far-flung, popular public rail system, instead of the vastly more expensive, limited thing being built right now. It’s the same with our woeful sewerage overflow polluting our beaches for the past 70 years whenever there’s heavy rain. Same with our power infrastructure; water; roading ... the list goes on and on when it comes to short-term solutions that aren’t really.

In the end, someone will have to pay, and that applies to Eden Park (or a new stadium) too. The bill? Well, it will be ginormous, of course, but it’s okay – it’ll be a generation or two away and someone else’s problem. Defer, deflect, disappoint, don’t do the thing that most benefits your constituents – even if they are in the future and not voting for you right now – and use the shield of financial probity to justify.

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

Tell you what else I am sick of – people who advocate a new, sparkling downtown stadium and moan about how Eden Park is “way out there in the suburbs”. I mean, what? Auckland is a giant collection of suburbs. Hadn’t you noticed? Ever been to Twickenham? It’s in a suburb, quite hard to get to. Wembley? It’s nearly in bleeding Watford, for Pete’s sake.

So let’s be clear – we don’t have a new stadium because we are genuinely paying the price for yesteryear’s politicians who didn’t do anything either. Today’s pollies can genuinely plead they don’t have the money because of all the past mistakes.

However, the only way we end this cycle is to, well, end it. To me, it doesn’t matter whether it’s Eden Park or somewhere else. If Eden Park is cheaper – and I think it is – then maybe that’s the shot. To those who say it’s old and in the wrong place, okay, point taken. If we all want a shiny new waterfront stadium, then so be it – but where’s the money coming from?

The thing is we – the people – will have to get things moving. We can’t rely on the politicians, local or national. No political party is going to campaign on building a major new stadium in Auckland when the rest of the country thinks Auckland is a giant pile of expensive errors populated by arrogant tosspots. Why would we pay for them? As for Auckland Council, fugeddaboutit, as they say in the movie Donnie Brasco.

An artist's impression of the proposed Quay Park stadium.

Quay Park may not have been perfect and was hugely expensive, but those high-profile people behind it at least had a go. What they really need is a bloke with the wallet behind it.

At this stage, let me introduce Grant Dalton, head of our America’s Cup team. He’s spent half a lifetime gathering millions upon millions from around the world. Maybe this is something Dalts can do when his present gig is over.

Or someone else. If we are going to build a multi-purpose, many-faceted stadium complex that isn’t just about sport and is “transformational” for Auckland, the private sector will need to stump up at least some of the cash for what must be a profitable venture. That is probably the only thing that will sway those elected to be transformational – but who usually aren’t.