Stop the Stadium

Otago Daily Times, 8 Nov 2008

Bev Butler’s entrance into the public debate on the stadium last year typified the attention to detail, the persistence, and the forthright, sometimes confrontational, manner that has marked her fight to end the project. David Loughrey looks into the background and heart of her opposition to the stadium.
Well before she was president of Stop the Stadium, Bev Butler found a typographical error in a list of figures 142 pages into a 162-page Carisbrook Stadium Trust report, showing the estimated economic impact for Dunedin, and rang the Otago Daily Times.

When a story did not appear in the newspaper the next day, she rang to find out why, complained the story had not been published immediately, and demanded the name of the person who made the decision.

Organisations from the Carisbrook Stadium Trust to the city and regional councils, not to mention the offices of the Ombudsmen and the Prime Minister, have heard from Ms Butler since that time….

There is an undeniable passion in her belief the stadium is the wrong choice for the city, and that there has been a corruption of the process by which organisations like the Dunedin City and Otago Regional councils, and the Community Trust of Otago, have gone about putting the project in place.

There is a clear frustration that her questions have not, she believes, been answered, and that her organisation’s message has not been properly aired….

What began as one woman with a mission has become an organisation boasting 1434 financial members, intent on halting a project that could cost city and regional council ratepayers almost $130 million, not to mention interest estimated last year at $183 million.

» Read more…

Otago Daily Times, 13 Oct 2008

Carisbrook Stadium Trust officials have been left red-faced after an exchange of rude emails with Dunedin stadium opponent Bev Butler was made public.

In the emails, Ms Butler, president of the Stop the Stadium group, repeatedly questioned trust commercial manager Guy Hedderwick over private funding arrangements for the planned $188 million Awatea St stadium.

After several exchanges, a frustrated Mr Hedderwick attempted to forward one of Ms Butler’s emails to trust chief executive Ewan Soper, along with the comment: “Hi Ewan - At what point do I tell her to piss off? Regards, Guy.”

Unfortunately, Mr Hedderwick hit the “reply” button rather than “forward”, meaning the message was relayed back to Ms Butler by mistake….

The exchange - which occurred almost two weeks ago - also revealed that the Carisbrook trust has so far received just $30 in private funding donations. The trust’s target for private sector funding is $55.5 million. Ms Butler sent copies of the emails to the Otago Daily Times yesterday….

Ms Butler told the ODT the exchange highlighted the trust’s “arrogance and attitude towards genuine concerns” members of the public held about the stadium….

She was also concerned to learn the trust had almost no paid-up donations from the private sector, and was instead relying on registrations of interest for corporate products - such as memberships, corporate suites and sponsorship deals.

Her own anti-stadium organisation had received more support, including individual donations of more than $1000, she claimed…

» Read more…

Sunday Star-Times, 12 October 2008, p. A4.

The Carisbrook Stadium Trust has received just $30 of private funding towards the construction of Dunedin’s proposed new Awatea St stadium - $55,499,970 short of its target.

The revelation comes in a series of emails between trust commercial manager Guy Hedderwick and anti-stadium lobbyist Bev Butler.

And in a sign trust bosses are uncomfortable with Butler’s continued questioning of its activities Hedderwick sought advice from chief executive Ewan Soper about how to deal with her - but sent his request to Butler by mistake: “Hi Ewan - At what point do I tell her to piss off - Regards Guy”.

A short time later Hedderwick sent Butler an email apologising for sending “an email in error” and asked her to “ignore it and/or delete it”. But Butler told the Sunday Star-Times she would do no such thing.

Contractors have been called to tender for construction contracts to build the stadium which trust chairman Malcolm Farry has always promised won’t cost more than $188 million - a figure that hasn’t changed during the past several years despite hikes in construction costs.

The Dunedin City Council has agreed, in principle, to fund $91.4m although $20m of that has to come from sources other than rates. The Otago Regional Council has agreed to conditionally contribute $37.5m and the Community Trust of Otago $10m.

Butler said the trust was responsible for finding the balance from private funding and she was simply trying to find out, on behalf of the public, how it intended to do so.

The email that prompted Hedderwick’s “piss off” comments asked: “Can you advise whether any money received or unconditionally promised from the private sector for such things as naming rights, corporate boxes, or ground rents are considered by the CST to be operating revenue or as donations to construction costs? Can you also confirm what proportion of this income will be redistributed to the Otago Rugby Football Union? Bearing in mind that the required level of private funding for construction is ($55.5million), how do you anticipate that this disparity of ($55,499,970) is to be met?

Soper, in an email to the Star-Times, said the trust always endeavoured to respond to public enquiries. “We sincerely regret the email sent to Ms Butler on 1 October… Our response fell below the standards we set ourselves and we apologised to her immediately. We have offered to meet with Ms Butler to go through her enquiries in detail, an offer which still stands.”

Soper said the trust has a private sector fundraising target of $45.5m towards the total construction budget for the new stadium and an estimated $10m of bridging finance.

“We will achieve our fundraising target from the sale of memberships, seating products and corporate suites ($41.5m) and sale of sponsorship products ($14m).”

But he conceded that, to date, they’d raised nothing. Only registrations of interest for membership products had been received totalling 40% of the target. “The trust is currently in the process of formalising these registrations into contractual agreements.”

He remained confident it would achieve the required 60% of the target by February.

“The trust is not relying on donations to meet the fundraising targets, but gratefully accepts donations from individuals who wish to express their support for the new Otago Stadium in this way. We have received $30 in donations to date.”

Sunday Morning, Radio New Zealand National, 21 Sep 08

With Chris Laidlaw - 10:06 The Sunday Group: The Dunedin Stadium Debate

This was the billing:

It’s planned to be the biggest indoor venue in the country, a bright star in Dunedin’s otherwise (some say) flagging fortunes. But the proposed stadium, with its price tag of almost $200 million, has its detractors - concerned citizens who say it will cost a lot of public money, for little public good.

Chris Laidlaw chairing a panel that includes: Malcolm Farry, Chairman of the Carisbrook Stadium Trust; Bev Butler, President of Stop the Stadium; Tim Calder, a founder of the Our Stadium support group; and Otago Regional Councillor Michael Deaker.

Radio Sport, 31 August 2008

Interview by Murray Deaker with Stop the Stadium president, Bev Butler, covering issues such as “Will the stadium be built?”, “How much will it actually cost?” and “Will the stadium be stopped?”.

» Listen to Bev Butler on Radio Sports, 31-8-08 (7:15 min).

Hills AM, 19-8-08

A 42 min interview with Bev Butler, president of Stop the Stadium. Traverses a range of issues of concern about the proposed Awatea St Stadium, particularly the debt burden to the city and the fact that the go-ahead happened without the completion of the independent peer reviews.

» Listen to Bev Butler on Hills AM, 19-8-08 (41:54 min).