Dunedin city councillors are this week poised to decide how much more money to put into Forsyth Barr Stadium annually, because debt is set to grow if they do not.
Mr Billot said the financial sustainability question was being raised back when he was the Stop the Stadium group vice-president.
In 2008, he led a crowd to the Dunedin Town Hall and posted a message on the front door about use of public money.
There were a lot of warnings, he said yesterday.
He thought the costs for the stadium were eventually going to be unsustainable.
‘‘I just thought and many other people thought, that the financial burden on a city the size of Dunedin did not square up,’’ Mr Billot said.
‘‘And the trouble about being right is it doesn’t always make you very popular.
‘‘But I feel we were right.’’
The stadium had its advantages, he conceded.
A lot of people had enjoyed events there since it opened in 2011.
‘‘But, on balance, you’d have to say the ratepayers are being asked now to take another hit.’’
He expected the path ahead would be difficult, partly because of competition in Christchurch, which has a new covered stadium itself.
Dunedin’s councillors have been presented with two options.
The option recommended by Dunedin City Council staff is to provide additional funding of $1.25m to Dunedin Stadium Property Ltd in 2026-27 and increasing it by another $1.25m the next year.
This would take the annual equity funding total to $5.4m from 2027-28.
The second option is to move straight away to $2.25m extra per year, but this would raise less money longer term and allow little room to move in dealing with unexpected costs.
The status quo was discounted, as it was considered ‘‘clearly unsustainable’’.
‘‘It doesn’t give me any happiness to see where it’s ended up,’’ Mr Billot said.
‘‘I’m not getting any satisfaction out of seeing what’s happened.
‘‘It’s just unfortunate for everyone, I think.’’
