Deception, deconfusion, understatement

…and the logo for Icarus
### ODT Online Mon, 6 Jul 2009
Opinion: Your say
Stadium deceptions
By Calvin Oaten
The stadium saga moves inexorably forward, and in doing so continues to reveal an ever growing list of deceptions. Why this should be it is difficult to know. In fact, why the DCC has gotten so deeply implicated is both [...]

Is rugby a "rock-solid" investment…

The Highlanders have not returned a profit since 2006…
### ODT Online Sat, 4 Jul 2009
Editorial: Rugby mad?
Doubtless there will be those on the Dunedin City Council and elsewhere to whom it makes complete sense, but to others, including those ratepayers already angered by and deeply opposed to the council’s backing of the new Forsyth Barr [...]

Housebus watcher at Awatea Street site

### ODT Online Fri, 3 Jul 2009
Carisbrook fan drives his point home
By Chris Morris
Wayne Squire, of Dunedin, has been documenting daily progress at the Forsyth Barr Stadium construction site from his house bus for nearly two months. [He]does not like what he sees taking shape outside the windows of his house bus.
Read more

Channel 9 fun and news

2 July. Channel 9 news reminds us that the brand launch for Forsyth Barr Stadium at University Plaza is on tonight. The new logo has “spikes” (supposed to be the stadium roof, god help us) and “flowing energy” (I think ratepayers paid for that, no-one else could afford to be that maximised).
Eion Edgar will be [...]

D Scene: What Cr Eckhoff believes

### D Scene 1-7-09 (page 3)
You be the judge
By Ryan Keen, Editor
Not often you get a councillor coming out and pouring scorn on the decision-making of another council. But that’s just what outspoken Otago Regional councillor Gerrard Eckhoff has done in D Scene today (see p10). In a scathing opinion piece he calls into question [...]

CST now clearer it might be 530 piles

### ODT Online Wed, 1 Jul 2009
Stadium work going to plan
By Chris Morris
Carisbrook Stadium Trust officials are encouraged by the results of early piling work at the site of the Forsyth Barr Stadium in Dunedin.
Read more
Apart from any that sunk without trace…see the safety tape on site…

DCC not talking to ORFU Debt, yet

More about DCC’s new rugby franchise…
### ODT Online Wed, 1 Jul 2009
Council says little as $2m ORFU loan expires
By David Loughrey
The term of the Otago Rugby Football Union’s $2 million loan from the Dunedin City Council ran out yesterday, but the sale of Carisbrook to the council appears to have taken care of the debt.
Read [...]

Piles: Eight in, more than 500 to go

### Radio New Zealand News Updated at 7:40am on 28 June 2009
Construction work underway at Dunedin stadium site
Early construction works have begun at the site of Dunedin’s new stadium, a month after demolition works started.
Demolition will continue at the Awatea Street site for the next few months for the controversial $198 million enclosed stadium.
Many opponents [...]

Cr Michael Deaker on stadium

Crs Michael Deaker, Gerry Eckhoff, Bryan Scott re-confirm their opposition…
### ODT Online Sat, 27 Jun 2009
Stadium ‘most unnecessary project’
By Rebecca Fox
Otago regional councillor Michael Deaker has described Forsyth Barr Stadium as the most “unnecessary” project he has seen in 14 years of local government…”Worse still, it is irrelevant to our purposes.”
Read more

DCC on stadium

UPDATED
“A comprehensive response to all those who submitted on the Stadium, whether for or against, during the 2009/10 Community Plan process”
Response to LTCCP Stadium submitters 2009/10 (PDF, 88.3 kb)
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### ODT Online Sat, 27 Jun 2009
Council posts letter to submitters on stadium
By David Loughrey
The much debated letter to residents who presented submissions to the Dunedin City [...]

UPDATED Game over – Cr Stevenson's apology

The councillor allegedly leaked a confidential letter in which the Dunedin City Council offered up social housing in return for government funding support to the stadium…
### ODT Online Thu, 25 Jun 2009
Stevenson apology finally accepted
By Chris Morris
Dunedin city councillors want new powers to police elected representatives who break the rules, following an end to the [...]

D Scene gets its information from?

### D Scene 24-6-09 (page 1 headlines)
‘Brook deal danger
“It now looks as though council is on hand to tit-feed all these others that are going belly up.”
Former city councillor Maurice Prendergast’s warning: p7
Plus: More details of DCC’s confidential Carisbrook deal revealed
Register to read D Scene online at http://fairfaxmedia.newspaperdirect.com/
(page 7)
Carisbrook deal: ‘Sets dangerous precedent’, critics [...]

What PriceWaterhouse Coopers and Horwath HTL Ltd said

This post relates to the comment I posted early this morning at http://dunedinstadium.wordpress.com/2009/06/20/nzru-goes-for-10-team-affair/#comment-3410
Owing to what appears to be a damaged file at the DCC website, here are the reports from PriceWaterhouse Coopers and Horwath HTL Ltd direct from my computer archives.
In the earlier post I said:
For those who haven’t read the most recently published peer [...]

Stadium: $261,000,000 and counting

Private sector funding now stands at close to $26 million.
### ODT Online Tue, 23 Jun 2009
Stadium to cost ratepayers $261m
By David Loughrey
Construction of the Forsyth Barr Stadium in Dunedin will cost ratepayers at least $261 million, updated figures confirm. The figure is the combined cost to be paid by the Dunedin City and Otago Regional [...]

City councillors plump for 7% rates increase

UPDATED
Channel 9 News
After long deliberations the Dunedin City Council has decided on a 7% annual rates increase.
Attracting some debate, the council has also accepted the Long Term Council Community Plan 2009/10 to 2018/19.
ODT will have full coverage tomorrow.
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ODT Online Tue, 23 Jun 2009
DCC lifts rates by 7%
By David Loughrey
Dunedin’s rates were finally set yesterday, with [...]

Vice-Chancellor pronounces on stadium

But first he runs down Carisbrook…
He closes by calling those opposing the stadium “vitriolic”.
Mr Skegg, were you bought off too – what a socially irresponsible message to graduates and citizens alike.
### University of Otago Magazine, Issue 23: June 2009 (page 5)
Vice-Chancellor’s Comment
By David Skegg
For nearly three years, Dunedin has been torn apart by controversy about [...]

Confidence in DCC, joke…

### ODT Online Sat, 20 Jun 2009
Editorial: Subsidising rugby
Will the Dunedin City Council be able to surprise ratepayers and prove it negotiated a good deal in buying Carisbrook? Or will it emerge that the council has paid over the odds and granted largesse to the Otago Rugby Football Union?
Read more

Stadium Lotto: $109 million to venues company

UPDATING
### ODT Online Sat, 20 Jun 2009
Stadium: council borrows $109m
By David Loughrey
The Dunedin City Council has begun borrowing $109 million to fund the Forsyth Barr Stadium, with $90 million of that figure locked in at an interest rate of 6.4%.
Read more
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### ODT Online Sat, 20/06/2009 – 11:24am.
Comment by Calvin Oaten on Stadium borrowing
Interesting that Athol [...]

CST headhunting

### ODT Online Fri, 19 Jun 2009
Finding CEO could take 6 months
By Hamish McNeilly
It may take up to six months to fill the Carisbrook Stadium Trust chief executive position, but the delay was in large part to do with finding the right person for the job, chairman Malcolm Farry said.
Read more

Carisbrook purchase by borrowing

UPDATED
### ODT Online Fri, 19 Jun 2009
Carisbrook difficult to value
By David Loughrey
It emerged this week [Carisbrook] will be sold to the Dunedin City Council in the next few weeks for $7 million, and while he was unwilling to confirm the figure, council finance and corporate support general manager Athol Stephens said yesterday the money would [...]

Eckhoff: ORC is "not a subsidiary of the DCC".

The stadium will be funded by borrowings, to be repaid over 15 years by the ratepayer…
### ODT Online Thu, 18 Jun 2009
Opinion
Change site and save our money
By Gerrard Eckhoff
The Otago Regional Council is about to increase its rate take for 2009-10. Gerrard Eckhoff suggests the rises are unsustainable. On the 24th of this month, the [...]

Rodney Hide: "Never too late" for a referendum

Butler: Stadium issues caused Mr Hide to “raise his eyebrows a few times”…
### ODT Online Thu, 18 Jun 2009
No Hide inquiry into stadium
By Elspeth McLean
Local Government minister Rodney Hide says he will be “keeping an eye” on issues around Forsyth Barr Stadium, but he will not be calling for a government inquiry.
Read more

D Scene: Carisbrook $7 million

### D Scene 17-6-09 (page 1)
The price: $7m
Exclusive: Welcome to the House of Drain – financial drain, that is. D Scene can reveal Dunedin City Council has agreed to buy iconic sports ground Carisbrook for $7 million. The deal will bail out the debt-ridden Otago Rugby Football Union: p4-5
### D Scene 17-6-09 (page 3)
Name your [...]

Today's ODT: 'Super ward' + Stevenson chasing votes over apology

### ODT Online Tue, 16 Jun 2009
Super ward supported – now it’s over to the public
By David Loughrey
Plans for a “super ward” that could give voters a far greater say on which councillors represent the city have been supported by the Dunedin City Council. It is now the turn of the city’s voters to have [...]

Stadium: DCC's explanation due to submitters

The Dunedin City Council is meeting this month to finalise the Annual Plan budget. With this, we are led to believe (ODT 12/5/09 Link), comes the reply to residents who presented submissions to the council opposing the Awatea St stadium.
In the annual round there were 538 submissions opposing the stadium, and 10 in support.
In May, [...]