She apparently hopes DCC ratepayers will soak up the cost of her empire building dreams.
D Scene, hello! This is NOT a $198 million stadium precinct – do your sums or read other media news of the spiralling stadium cost. We don’t want to use the words pig ignorance.
### DScene 3-3-10 (page 6)
Indoor pool mooted
By Michelle Sutton
An indoor swimming pool has been mooted as a second stage development at Dunedin’s $198 million stadium precinct. The NZ Academy of Sport South Island, headquarters in Dunedin, confirmed to D Scene that it would like a pool included in the stadium precinct, where it hopes to be based at in the future. The Awatea street roofed venue – branded the Forsyth Barr Stadium at University Plaza – is currently under construction, with a August 1 2011 Rugby World Cup deadline.
Meanwhile, as a pool at the stadium dvelopment is suggested, Dunedin City Council is also reviewing its pool facilities.
{continues} #Bookmark
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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr
What if? Dunedin... 
Hello Elizabeth. Naturally we’re aware of the debate about the eventual cost of the stadium project, but that is the current officially cited figure for the stadium precinct construction costs
Hi Mike – fair enough.
Well, care of ODT today I think we can add the cost of the new bridge over Leith as a stadium precinct cost – although politicians
maywill quibble that it’s pure roading spend, on the harbour arterial, and not a ‘stadium’ item.I wonder what the current official figure actually is for the stadium construction costs – does anyone know?
Maybe someone could make an official request for an updated figure for both construction costs and other related costs.
There’s usually a monthly contractor’s report submitted to Council. Haven’t seen one posted for a while though. The report includes a breakdown of the contractor’s claim for the month, and total claimed costs to date.
Oh, you can bet that’s exactly how it will be painted, Elizabeth. We are apparently that stupid. It’s like building a new room onto your house specifically to house the grand piano you’ve just bought, and then trying to say that the two tasks shouldn’t be viewed together.
But what would we know ?
Readers of the site may be interested to learn about some more of the associated goings on down on and near the site of the new rugby stadium.
There were, you may recall, a whole lot of movements associated with the Academy of Sport which occupies much of the old Art Gallery building on Logan Park. When the Art Gallery was proposed to be demolished, it was finally proposed that a new building would be erected on the stadium site to house the Academy. It was to be a squarish sort of affair over in one corner of the site and was going to be funded by the DCC and SPARC. Just why the DCC needed to be involved in funding it at all has never been satisfactorily explained, but the answer from the DCC that the Academy got was that it could only happen after the Rugby World Cup.
That seemed to be settled, but now, surprise surprise, the DCC have been told that a new long skinny building is what the Academy wants, and that it is to be positioned under the overhang of the North stand and it is to be ready before the RWC. Oh yes, and there is to be a large capacity lift provided to service the North Stand. What, I hear, would you need such a building amenity like that for?
Could it have anything to do with provision of catering facilities?
But hang on just a moment.
The Art Gallery is now not going to be demolished and so the Academy doesn’t need to shift anyway. And where is the money to do this coming from – you guessed it, from the Logan Park Development programme which is designed to meet community recreational and sporting needs.
I wonder if any current Dunedin City Councillors are aware of what is going on behind the scenes?
I’m very happy that the Academy of Sport and or rugger chaps should leave the old Logan Park Art Gallery building, if to stop deliberate ongoing damage to its interior – how many balls can you throw at plaster moldings for the hell of it (thanks DCC for letting them in there for starters and not minding the trashings). However, we don’t owe the Academy a life. Or a new building. It’s obscene when other genuine Dunedin communities go without facilities or maintenance of existing assets, while a ‘remote’ few cook the DCC books.
And while any interested DCC Councillors could be asking about those little moves, they could perhaps ask just what provisions round changing rooms have been agreed to with the ORFU on Logan Park and the exclusive use of lit rugby fields. What revenue is being generated, and does it cover costs and costs of exclusion?
Russell; you should email your findings to Dave Cull, copied to all Councillors. If there is any substance to any of it then it is serious business. Meanwhile in today’s ODT we hear that the reintroduction of trolley buses to counter ‘peak oil’ could be hideously expensive. Why, it could cost as much as $8 million to instal ‘light rail’ from the Gardens to the Exchange. Ridiculous!! how could anyone contemplate that amount of money for something as frivolous as that? Surely, this is a time to get St Malcolm on the case. He would front the cause, and, before you could say ‘three sections please’, he would raise the money and sell the concept. Just like the stadium. Peak oil would be banished and he would even run a spur line to the stadium. And we would all rejoice at the wonder of the man.
I see in this morning’s Oddity that the discussion regarding the Academy of Sport and their plans for being housed at the new rugby stadium were held in private. I re-iterate my points made earlier.
Just what is going on with the Academy and the DCC and why do they want their new building erected and running before the RWC? Why do they need to shift if the Art Gallery is not being removed? Why should the City pay for most of their housing in any case? And what exactly are the relationships between the Academy, professional rugby, and some of the interesting private companies that seem to be housed at Logan Park?
In the interests of transparency, time for these grey papers to become quite white.
The Academy of Sport pays the DCC rent of $40,000 per year for its current facilities. What is a fair rent for the proposed $3.8 million building? perhaps $400,000 per year? The new rent needs to be decided before a decision is made to go ahead.
The piece of skirt responsible for funding irregularities* for the Centre of Excellence for Amateur Sport [for Professional RUGBY] has claimed a QB Honour. Paperwork showing the fraud is held independently.
ODT: Queen’s Birthday Honours 2015
Members MNZM
Kereyn Maree Smith, Auckland, services to sports governance.
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More at this ODT Link.