Stop the Stadium

http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/35751/desperate-plea-sell-stadium-seats

by David Loughrey, Otago Daily Times, 12 December 2008

Carisbrook Stadium Trust chairman Malcolm Farry has made another call for stadium supporters to buy seating packages if they want the stadium to go ahead, as the deadline for the trust to raise private sector funding closes in.

The trust has 50 days to sell 500 lounge memberships - for $1500 plus GST a year - that chairman Malcolm Farry yesterday said would take it to its private sector fundraising target of $28 million by February next year.

The original lounge membership agreements had been rejigged, with a shorter commitment term of five years and an automatic right of renewal, plus a later date for the first payment.

The idea was to make it easier for businesses and individuals to sign up before February, Mr Farry said.

Under the new option, the first payment would not be due until just before the planned opening of the stadium in 2011.

Asked why agreements were changed, Mr Farry said it was hard to get people interested in paying before the stadium was built.

People paying for seats at Carisbrook under the original arrangement would have had to pay for two years’ seating packages at the same time.

“We tested it on a few people - they said it makes a difference.”

Those who had already signed could exchange for the new contract.

“That should provide the reassurance businesses need to commit in a period of some economic uncertainty.”

Mr Farry put the trust’s private sector funding tally so far at $19.8 million, though not all of that was signed.

The amount came from $6.8 million of signed commitments for lounge memberships, corporate suites and open club reserves, up from $6.3 million on November 26.

To that, Mr Farry added $3.5 million for corporate suites, which, though not signed, were “pending finalisation” and $9.5 million in sponsorship funding “in advanced discussions”.

Asked about the figures, he said only the $6.8 million was actually signed, but “it would be inappropriate to leave that as a bald figure” because the trust was in the process of finalising contracts.

“I would expect that all to be signed up by January, if not sooner.”

Mr Farry said many stadium supporters appeared not to realise the importance of the February target, and needed to understand they had to commit to memberships before then or they would put at risk funding from the Dunedin City Council and Otago Regional Council.

“It is up to the community, individuals and businesses, to seize this opportunity and commit now to purchasing memberships.

“Only then can we ensure construction can start next year in time for the stadium to be ready for 2011 Rugby World Cup.”

He urged people to commit now, rather than “leave it till the 11th hour and give us all a nervous breakdown”.

The trust is working to the council-set target of raising 60% of $45.5 million, although it also needs to find about $10 million on top of that for bridging finance.

http://www.radiosport.co.nz/SportsNews/spspo/Detail.aspx?id=148884

2/12/2008 7:16 a.m.

The financial crisis could prove the downfall for Dunedin’s proposed new stadium with private funding harder to find

Funding for the new stadium in Dunedin is in doubt but the Carisbrook Stadium Trust is still ruling out a refit of the House of Pain as an option.

The financial crisis is making private funding harder to find and there is now doubt over an application for $10 million with the Community Trust of Otago, with the Trust losing 18 million dollars in six months on overseas investments.

Carisbrook Stadium Trust chief executive Ewan Soper says a refit of Carisbrook is not an option and they can not bring down the cost of construction by 10 to 15 million dollars.

Soper says they are now confident they can build the stadium for the cost they have outlined and they now need to work on the funding options.

The Trust needs to confirm 60 percent of 55.5 million in private funding by February 2 to go ahead with the project. Soper says they are less confident they will meet that funding deadline. He says the councils have made it clear that the Community Trust support is pivotal and there has been some talk within the city and regional councils about suspending the project until the economic conditions are more friendly.

http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/34078/stadium-funding-doubt

Otago Daily Times: Stadium funding in doubt

By Chris Morris on Monday, 1 December 2008

Uncertainty surrounds a major funding stream for Dunedin’s planned Otago Stadium after $18 million was wiped from the value of the Community Trust of Otago’s overseas investments in just six months.

Continuing global economic turmoil was to blame for the decline, which saw the trust’s capital reserves drop from $190 million on March 31 to $168 million on October 31, trust chairman Bill Thomson confirmed yesterday.

The $22 million drop in value - including about $4 million in grants distributed since March, plus administration costs - meant trust members were now “running the ruler” more closely over each funding application, he said.

It was “inevitable” the trust’s $7 million annual grants budget would be reduced next year, and a reluctance to reduce support for smaller community groups meant the trust’s attitude towards capital projects might need to change, Mr Thomson said.

“We have got to be mindful of our financial position. It’s inevitable we are going to have trim our donations budget back for the coming year.

“We are confident there will be a recovery . . . and we will restore our reserve position in the fullness of time, but it would be irresponsible for us not to put in place strategies to address that shortfall,” he said.

Those strategies would be discussed in meetings early next year, and the debate would “inevitably” include Otago Stadium funding, he said.

He confirmed the Dunedin City Council’s application for a $10 million grant, to help pay for the planned $188 million stadium, had been received and was being assessed as part of the trust’s valuation process.

He said it would be “inappropriate” to comment on the likely outcome ahead of board discussions but added: “We can’t look at the stadium application in isolation of the state of the markets at the present time.

“It [the $10 million DCC application] is something like five times the size of any grant we have made before,” he said.

Carisbrook Stadium Trust (CST) chief executive Ewan Soper said, when contacted, the $10 million grant was “one of the fundamental components” in the stadium funding package, and questioned whether the stadium could proceed without it.

“Obviously, if there are difficulties with the trust’s contribution, it could mean there are difficulties with the project,” he said.

It was not the only financial hurdle facing the project, with private-sector fundraising proving “more difficult than anticipated”, he said.

The trust was required to raise $55.5 million privately, with 60% to be confirmed by February 2, but had so far found only “around $12 million to $14 million”, Mr Soper said.

“I guess the same financial environment impacting the trust is also impacting those who may contribute through private sector funding.”

It was expected the majority of the outstanding money would need to be confirmed in the next few weeks, before Christmas, as January was expected to be a “pretty dead” time for fundraising, he said.

The thought of losing the Community Trust’s $10 million grant was not one Mr Soper wanted to contemplate yesterday.

“We have a lot of work to do to get the private-sector funding over the line. The way the response has been to date, it would be pretty hard to contemplate a greater challenge for private sector funding.”

Dunedin Mayor Peter Chin said, when contacted, the trust’s decision - whatever it might be - was “something we will have to take into account once the decision of the Community Trust is made”.

“With all of these things that happen, they are all challenges to the whole project. That will be a matter council will have to decide come that time. I’m not going to second-guess that at all.”

The Community Trust books are not the only ones under pressure, with Southern Trust chief executive Karen Shea, of Dunedin, yesterday confirming income from the trust’s 1200 gaming machines had dropped by $7 million, to about $47 million, this year.

The result was a $3 million reduction in grants this year, down to $18 million, and it was likely reduced funding would continue next year, with consequences for “hundreds” of Dunedin groups and organisations, big and small, she said.

“We will still continue to try and fund as many organisations as we can, but we won’t be able to continue to fund them at the levels we have in previous years.”

Gaming trusts had already decided not to support the stadium “to the detriment of all other smaller projects” and she doubted the Community Trust board would opt to approve the $10 million grant.

“They [the council] can’t have expectations that they are going to get millions and millions of dollars, because they are just not - not by a long chalk.”

Mr Thomson said he was surprised at the speed with which financial fortunes had turned in the past six months, saying the downturn was “a [financial] storm that is unprecedented in size”.

However, he was confident the trust’s diversified portfolio, including a mix of international and domestic fixed-interest and equity investments, was strong enough to weather the storm “in the fullness of time”.

“It’s just a case of how much time that will take,” he said.

• The latest Carisbrook Stadium Trust report will be debated by the city council at a finance and strategy meeting today.

Otago Daily Times, 8 Nov 2008

It is hoped an extraordinary meeting of the Dunedin City Council on Wednesday will finally complete an agreement with the Carisbrook Stadium Trust clarifying the responsibilities of both organisations regarding the stadium project.

But deadlines for the service-level agreement, which would also determine how progress was reported, have passed before.

The agreement was part of one of the conditions the council set down in March, when it agreed to keep funding the stadium.

It was expected to be completed by May, and council chief executive Jim Harland said in early September he expected it it to be finalised in the following two weeks.

» Read more…

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, 5 Nov 2008

SPONTANEOUS applause from Upper Clutha residents closed a slick and informative Otago Stadium roadshow presentation in Wanaka last night.

The reaction from the 35 people who attended the meeting at the Lake Wanaka Centre was positive, but none took the chance to publicly question the presenters of the travelling roadshow about the stadium’s direct benefits to the Wanaka region.

When asked by Carisbook [sic] Stadium Trust marketing consultant Don Hutchings whether they thought the Otago Stadium project was in good hands, the group responded with applause.

Wanaka Community Board chairman and Queenstown Lakes councillor Lyal Cocks welcomed Otago Stadium commercial manager Guy Hedderlink [sic] and spokesman Brian Meredith with the statement “Wanaka always turns out”.

But, for a town where residents usually come together for local community causes, the meeting lacked vocal support and a show of numbers.

Mr Cocks explained to those who arrived at the 7pm meeting on time that questions about ratings differentials for Queenstown Lakes residents, derived from QLDC funding for the stadium project, were an issue for the council to decide.

However, his community board and council colleagues Carrick Jones and John Wilson pressed the roadshow presenters to explain the stadium’s private funding and rating impact for Wanaka residents.

Mr Hedderlink [sic] said that the further people lived away from Dunedin, the less they would be likely to pay by way of rates.

Otago Daily Times, 1 Nov 2008

At the height of political activity in South Africa that led to the overthrow of the apartheid system and Nelson Mandela’s election as president, Guy Hedderwick faced a choice between compulsory military service with the South African Army, or jail.

The new commercial manager of the Carisbrook Stadium Trust chose the former.

That was not an easy decision for someone from a liberal-thinking family, which counted among its friends Donald Woods.

Woods was the newspaper editor, anti-apartheid campaigner and supporter of eventual martyr to the cause, Steve Biko, a black anti-apartheid campaigner who died in police custody.

Living through the political and social upheavals of the time has not been the only challenging episode in Mr Hedderwick’s life.

Otago Daily Times, 21 Oct 2008

Funding for upgrades of roads, footpaths and street signs off the site of the planned Otago Stadium has not been taken into account, the latest report on the project says.

The report said funding for connections to mains services and facilities such as water and roading had been taken into account within and on the boundaries of the site.

“However, it is important to note that these issues primarily relate to connections, upgrades and so on at the boundary of the site and across the site,” the report, written by the stakeholder group, containing representatives of the Dunedin city and Otago regional councils, University of Otago and Carisbrook Stadium Trust, said.

“In other words, any upgrade to infrastructure off-site has not been accounted for. For example, it may be preferable to upgrade some of the footpaths and existing roads leading to the campus or central business district.

“Likewise, signage to the stadium from key parts of the city should be considered by the relevant stakeholders.

Because it was early in the process, it was not known what sort of funding may be required.

» Read more…

Otago Daily Times, 20 Oct 2008

A new peer review has been set up to look at conflicts of interest within Dunedin’s stadium project, and another review will check its design includes everything needed to ensure operating revenue if it is built.

The latest report on the stadium, due to be discussed by the Dunedin City Council finance and strategy committee today, also announces a new project delivery team to be headed by Ron Anderson.

The Carisbrook Stadium Trust trustee has already been criticised for having a conflict of interest after staying on as a trustee when his company, Arrow International, was appointed to help manage the overall design and construction for the project….

Stop the Stadium president Bev Butler, who has complained to the auditor-general about aspects of the stadium process, said the review was “a good, positive move”….

The delivery team includes Rider Levett Bucknall managing director Brian Dackers.

Rider Levett Bucknall did a peer review of the stadium’s design and construction costs last year that outlined a potential increase of $3.6 million to its estimated cost.

» Read more…