Barr says Canberra Stadium has 'more than a decade' left; plan to end traffic chaos
Talks are under way in a bid to improve the game day experience.
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ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr is adamant Canberra Stadium still has "more than a decade" left in its lifespan, with talks under way to solve a major headache which has sparked concerns about the city's ability to cater for major sporting events.
Venues ACT, Transport Canberra and Roads ACT have launched discussions to find a way to get spectators to and from the venue after traffic debacles soured the fan experience at two blockbuster games in the past two months.
The Lions' game against the ACT Brumbies attracted a crowd of 23,116 - the biggest for a rugby game in Canberra in 20 years - earlier this month, while Michelle Heyman stole the show for the Matildas in front of 25,125 fans in May.
But both games were plagued by complaints about fans still trapped in traffic after kick-off, buses taking 90 minutes to arrive from the city, and the long waits to get home after full-time. That's without even mentioning the smell which occasionally wafts through the bowels of the stadium or internet outages.
Elkins' team is exploring ways to provide a service which can avoid a late rush to enter and the struggle to exit, while looking to "hasten the entry" of buses to the venue, yet conceding creating a bus-only lane on the way to the stadium would only contribute to the chaotic traffic in the remaining lane.
"Each event is reasonably unique. Something like a Matildas match, we found we had a really high level of unique access - so, people who hadn't been to the stadium before," Elkins said during ACT committee hearings on Monday.
"We have brought together ourselves, Roads ACT and Transport Canberra. We'll continue to work, I believe there is a meeting actually happening out on site at the moment, to look at how we can continue to improve that access.
"One of the things we're looking at is the mix of buses we can use. We're also looking at how we continue to advertise other places that can be parked, and how we service those with buses as they come past."
A spike in crowds at Canberra Stadium - aided by the Lions tour, the Matildas, and the Canberra Raiders' surge to the top of the NRL ladder - is helping the venue surge towards its target revenue.
The Raiders' average crowd figure sits at its highest point since a premiership-winning 1994 campaign, and the club is on the verge of surpassing the 20,000-barrier four times in a season for the first time in 31 years.
A charge towards their first minor premiership in 35 years is likely to hand the Raiders at least one home final, while the NRL has cleared the way for a preliminary final to return to Canberra Stadium should Ricky Stuart's side earn hosting rights.
A preliminary final in the capital would be destined to sell out after the 2019 edition captured the third-biggest crowd in Canberra Stadium history, but Barr says there is still no current financial justification for a new stadium.
"Right now, there isn't one. There isn't a project. There's still usable life within Canberra Stadium. Bits of the stadium were constructed in 1977 from memory, so coming up on 50 years, but there was a major refurbishment in the late 1990s, associated with the Sydney Olympics," Barr said.
"It is the government's view that the facility is still fit for purpose. It has some design limitations because it was adapted as an athletics track, and certainly, it's proportion of undercover seating is lower than many contemporary facilities.
"There will be a need, in time, for a new facility, but that need was not so pressing as to abandon many other more worthy infrastructure projects to fast rack a new stadium. The time will come when a new stadium is needed, and we have indicated the process we're undertaking to get to that."
Bruce remains the preferred location for a new stadium in Canberra, but Barr shot down hopes a new site would be finalised within weeks despite ACT Sports Minister Yvette Berry's comments last month.
The work of government officials investigating the suitability of various sites, which allows certain locations to be ruled out of contention, is close to a conclusion.
"The current site, if redeveloped, would mean it would be out of action for a period of time, so that is a downside of of just knocking down all the stands of the existing stadium," Barr said. "That would remain, in theory, a feasible option because we know it can accommodate a stadium, because it currently does."
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