Chief Minister Andrew Barr says stadium ownership looms as a deal-breaker for his Bruce renewal plan, adamant the ACT government must own a new facility and declaring there were too many red-flag problems to justify pursuing Civic as a location option.
In an attempt to ease tension between ACT government officials and stadium users, Barr has already reached out to Civic supporters at the NRL, Rugby Australia and the A-Leagues to flag his desire to work together to build a new venue at Bruce before 2033.
The response so far has been tentative, but reasonably warm considering how much vitriol there has been over the past 12 months. Barr is hopeful all codes will come to the table, even if that is offering international and elite content at next to no cost for a new venue, which is expected to cost more than $500 million.
Canberra Raiders chairman Dennis Richardson will front the media on Friday morning and back the proposal for a 30,000-seat stadium, on the proviso a new stadium is built rather than trying to upgrade an outdated venue that's considered no longer fit-for-purpose.
Barr has commissioned a $300,000 feasibility study - the sixth of its kind since 2009 - to look at the best option moving forward, including whether to build a new stadium, do a staged rebuild of Canberra Stadium, or a complete knockdown-rebuild.
That study will form part of a submission to the federal government in an attempt to secure Commonwealth funding for the project.
A new venue - likely on the eastern side of the existing site - will require a variation to the National Capital Plan and there are fears that may add a two-year wait to an already drawn-out 14-year saga.
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Either way, Barr says it's time for Civic backers and Bruce supporters to come together to support a plan similar to the one tabled as part of Australia's men's soccer World Cup bid in 2009.
"There are more opinions on this than there are people in Canberra. You certainly shouldn't make the very good be the enemy of the perfect in relation to proceeding with new projects," Barr said.
"And, I have genuinely explored [all stadium location options]. It's not something I haven't devoted a lot of time and effort to to try to make it work. But I've got to face facts - red flag after red flag [for the Civic site], it was just not going to work.
"Throughout the process we've had fallbacks ... I've even got a fallback on the AIS option. But I'm more confident now that we have a pathway forward.
"I recognise and understand the point people make about the current AIS site [and its lack of vibrancy], and acknowledge there will be a task of renewal. We need to think creatively how to make that space appealing. I think we can do it."
Barr says the ACT needs to own the stadium to justify such significant spending. The existing stadium is owned by the Australian Sports Commission - a federal government agency - and the land is zoned for Commonwealth use.
Asked if he regretted not pulling the trigger on stadium ideas in 2009, or throughout the 2010s, Barr said: "We didn't have the money at the time."
Barr said there were "huge risks" associated with the Civic site, pointing to yet-to-be-released details of sewerage pipes, chemical contamination and expected building rubble and asbestos.
He says if a new, or upgraded, Bruce venue gets federal funding approval, the ACT government will work with the AIS to build more housing, bars, hotels and carparks surrounding the 64-hectare site. Some of that will be on ACT-owned land surrounding the AIS; some will be on existing AIS land.
Barr all but ruled out putting a roof on a new venue, but said there would be more covered seating than is currently offered at Canberra Stadium.
"That would add hundreds of millions of dollars to the cost. Covered seating is different to an entirely covered arena," Barr said. "We need much more covered seating ... but the second you go into opening and closing roofs, or full-enclosed stadiums, you're increasing the costs massively. And it wouldn't necessarily make it that much warmer."
He said the overall spend on stadium construction needed to be managed to avoid blowouts, which would then affect ticket prices. "If we overcapitalise, then we could run the risk of pricing many people out of being able to access the venue because the ticket prices are so high," Barr said.
When told tickets to NRL matches at the new $828 million stadium in Sydney were cheaper than those for games at the 46-year-old Canberra Stadium, Barr said: "In a city like Sydney, there's a different level of revenue generation.
"Those stadiums are used more frequently than ours ever will be. Putting together a business case, I'm not going to be ridiculously optimistic and try to, frankly, BS people that [a new Canberra Stadium] is going to be used more than 30 times a year. It's just not. We're not going to write up a business case that dreams up that it's going to be used 100 times a year, because it's not.
"We want people to be able to go to games and be able to afford to get to the ground to support the Raiders and Brumbies."
Barr flagged the idea of stadium memberships to help generate revenue, and floated the prospect of sporting codes, or individual teams, chipping in to fit out hospitality areas.
But he warned Canberrans not to expect a state-of-the-art facility with all the special trimmings of expensive sporting stadiums around the world.
"It can't be a gold-plated facility," he said.
"We need a new stadium, but no, we do not need an extravagant facility. We need something that's functional, value for money."
