A new video has given Aucklanders a closer look at the Western Springs Stadium proposal backed by Auckland FC and their billionaire owners.
The footage features in a campaign to generate public support for
Auckland Arena: Stadium images released by Auckland FC’s billionaire owners
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Images of the facility – which features the Auckland FC logo – include covered padel courts, indoor basketball courts, community training grounds, a lake-view seating area, hospitality and car parking.
It also shows what the stadium could look like when hosting concerts.
Auckland Arena has also launched its Instagram and TikTok pages but has yet to make its first post.
Auckland FC co-owners, businesswoman Anna Mowbray, her husband, former All Blacks lock Ali Williams and American businessman Bill Foley, are listed on the website as Auckland Arena’s founders.
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“Western Springs is just crying for it to happen,” Williams told the Herald.
“[The idea] stems from, one, a deep connection with Auckland, for myself around how great the city is – and I think we all know how great it is – but how do we enhance that?
“And then you sit experiencing a stadium infrastructure for so many years, it’s like how can we enhance it and the reality is that Auckland needs a stadium which is sort of 15,000 [capacity] – smaller, more boutique, more intimate. So the fans and the people have a better experience of sport and the process before the sport, during the sport and after it.”
Auckland FC are listed as an official supporter of the arena.
Speaking with the Herald, Williams said the facility can be built at zero cost to the ratepayer with $300 million in private funding secured already to deliver the project.
It estimates the facility would generate $100m-plus annually for the Auckland community.
“I don’t have a lot to contribute to it privately [personally],” Williams admitted.
“But that’s the cornerstone at the moment. Whether there’s more and how that looks, we don’t know just yet, but you know, the fact is we don’t need any more, with Anna and Bill.”
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The website says: “Anchored by a boutique community stadium, our multi-purpose entertainment precinct is deliberately designed to cater for our community and sporting excellence.”
It calls for locals to support the concept, suggesting it can solve a “gap in [the] current Auckland stadium network“.
Williams told the Herald he sees a high-performance sport base with a medical facility attached – similar to the NZCIS complex in Wellington – going nicely alongside the Auckland Zoo and Motat.
“This will be a base for high-performance sport with individuals or all sorts of codes from football to rugby to whatever code that New Zealand aspires to.
“If you can tie all those three in together, then it makes it makes a compelling story that Aucklanders can get behind.
“It’s got to be interactive, it’s got to be lively, it’s got to be a precinct.”
Auckland Council is considering two rival bids to develop stadium facilities at Western Springs, with the Auckland FC billionaires up against a joint proposal from the Ponsonby Rugby Club and music promoter CRS Records.
The Ponsonby Rugby Club wants to extend its current occupancy and expand operations to other sports, while enabling the venue to host 50,000-capacity concerts through redevelopment of the site with a proposal to the council for further funding.
The club’s current lease expires in 2027.
The digger is ready
Williams said they are awaiting a decision from the council, which he expects will be revealed in a couple of months.
“We’re sitting there waiting for [the] council to accept and give us a lease.
“One of the important elements is we’re not taking from the city, buy the land, we’re actually just leasing the land off it, so we will never own the land.
“We’ve got a digger and we’re ready to go now.
“In terms of plans, that always takes a lot of time, but look, we’re not gonna muck around.”
Williams said he’s confident they could be the group to receive the green light.
“There’s no elements that will change for the locals in terms of noises and things like that.
“I believe it will really add to the locals in the community, because it’s an all-inclusive part.
“The fact that we’re not asking people to put into their own pockets, we’re not asking [the] council to pay for anything. That should be a fair indication that there’s a good, there’s a higher chance than less.”
Not a sabotage
Williams, a former member at Ponsonby Rugby Club who reckons he’s played on their Western Springs home pitch more than most others, said this stadium “is not a sabotage”.
“I want to see the best for the club. I think there are some obvious solutions that everyone has talked about around Cox’s Bay.
“For me, we’re very open to supporting their decision, but at the end of the day we look at the club, we look at this as a greater Auckland opportunity.”
In a statement last month, Mowbray said their group’s proposal would not require public funding.
“The heart of the complex will be the 12,500-seat stadium, which will become [the] home for Auckland FC. The city has a stadium shortage, which this will help to rectify. The complex is expected to create long-term social, economic, environmental and cultural benefits for Auckland without any burden of cost to the ratepayer.
“The proposal is backed by local and international investors, with local motivation around giving back to Auckland. Auckland FC, who this will become the new home of, [have] seen massive success in [their] first season, creating a loyal and significant fan base in the city.”
Auckland city councillor John Watson, who was at a closed-door meeting on the Auckland Arena proposal last month, said at the time it was unfortunate discussions had entered the public domain.
He highlighted concern about a private development on public land.
“Is this a publicly owned asset essentially being privatised?”
Bonnie Jansen is a multimedia journalist in the NZME sports team. She’s a football commentator and co-host of the Football Fever podcast, and was part of the Te Rito cadetship scheme before becoming a fulltime journalist.
