The long-awaited, much-debated stadium survey developed by two University of Otago academics will be sent to 5000 randomly selected Dunedin homes by November 17.
University school of business lecturer Dr John Williams said yesterday the $7000 needed for the survey had been raised, despite both the Dunedin city and Otago regional councils refusing to help fund it.
The city council's finance and strategy committee last week voted not to participate in, or fund the survey, and the regional council made the same decision.
But donations came in quickly, with opposition group Stop the Stadium raising $3020.
Dr John Williams and Dr Ben Wooliscroft said in a press release they were concerned about the quality of previous surveys into attitudes regarding the Otago Stadium, and had offered to undertake "neutral" research into whether or not the citizens of Dunedin supported the public funding of the stadium.
"As teachers of research methods, we had used previous stadium research as examples in our lectures, highlighting their flaws.
"If we are going to criticise something, then we feel it's our moral obligation to show we can constructively contribute to the discussion, as opposed to simply being negative."
Dr Williams said the research was being done "in an open and publicly accountable manner", and the pair had actively sought input from both sides of the debate in an effort to reduce any element of bias.
Dr Williams estimated a preliminary report would be available well before Christmas.
Asked why the question was kept short and simple, Dr Williams said while some facts and figures were in a draft form of the survey, people from both sides of the debate were questioned, and "the parties involved could not agree on the figures, and could not agree what the facts were".
The figure of 5000 surveys should mean at least 1000 were returned, which would give a result with a reasonable margin of error.
Cr Dave Cull said he, Cr Kate Wilson and Cr Chris Staynes had put $1000 of their own money towards the survey because they wanted to know what the community thought, especially as economic conditions had changed since the last survey.
He thought the council should contribute, and the survey was more likely to be trusted if more than just Stop the Stadium were involved.
Cr Richard Walls, who has been critical of the survey idea, said he did not think the question would get a fair response.
"No. It's going to get a snapshot of what people think the position is now, but none of us know what the outcome is and won't know until February."
In February, the Carisbrook Stadium Trust is due to present its final report with figures like the guaranteed maximum construction price to the council, once final designs are complete.
The results of the survey would be made available on the website www.stadium.survey.otago.ac.nz, which would include raw data collected.
• Information sought
The Question
"Considering all that you know about the costs and benefits of the proposed stadium, please indicate whether you support it. The current proposal is to finance the stadium using money from both private investors (approximately 25%) and also public money (approximately 75%), mainly from rates gathered by the Dunedin City Council and the Otago Regional Council."
Respondents are asked to tick boxes marked 'yes', 'no' or 'undecided'.
The rest of the survey asks for personal information, including whether respondents are ratepayers, their gender, age, employment, education, whether they rent or own their homes, and their income.
The Funding
$7000 for the survey donated by: Bruce Chilcott, Eddie Gray, Greater Dunedin (city councillors Kate Wilson, Dave Cull and Chris Staynes), Ralph Feitcher, Roger Belton, Roy Borgman, Simon Gilmour, Stop the Stadium, and anonymous donors.
The Last Survey
In surveys last year, a DCC mail-out survey to 37,780 ratepayers had a 44% response, with 46.5% supporting building a stadium and 49.9% opposing. More than half (57.2%) opposed council funding while 40.7% supported it.
A regional council mail-out to 74,759 ratepayers showed 52.5% of the 29,222 respondents supported a new stadium, 45.2% did not.
A city council random telephone survey of 2200 residents showed, in raw data, 60.8% thought a new stadium should be built, while 34.8% thought it should not be built.
Using normalised data, in which information from the last census is used to iron out demographic irregularities, the figures become 62.2% and 28% respectively.
