Council and Government looking at $1.5 billion stadium for Auckland

The Herald reports:

An Auckland Councillor has lambasted plans for a new national stadium, calling it a “mayoral vanity project”.

A pre-feasibility study conducted by consulting firm PwC estimated it would cost between $1.1 billion and $1.5b to build a rectangular rugby stadium in downtown Auckland.

Wow that is almost as good value as a monorail!

But John Watson, a councillor for the Albany ward, told NZME the city didn’t need a new stadium, couldn’t afford one and would rarely be able to fill it.

“The stadium debate was had and it was had back in 2009 and now we seem to see these consistent attempts to resurrect these grandiose plans at a time when Auckland’s got other priorities and when, ironically enough, our existing stadiums have had huge investments of capital to put into them in the interim,” he said.

Politicians like to build monuments to themselves.