Lee Vandervis said the covered stadium should shift to a fully synthetic surface, as this would allow it to be used daily, providing a boost for local sports, events and conferences.
Grass is reinforced by artificial fibres at the stadium, but it is overwhelmingly a natural turf.
"The delicate stadium turf is enormously expensive to keep growing and needs weeks between events to recover, limiting use of the main pitch,’’ Cr Vandervis said.
"Our stadium has been in the grip of a turf war since it was built in 2011, with many millions spent keeping the turf alive and the stadium mostly empty.
"A synthetic turf is the only way forward I can see to get regular use of the stadium playing surface and reduce maintenance costs, and the sooner the better.’’
Full turf replacement is not due to happen before 2031.
The stadium also started using LED lamps this year to enhance grass growth, replacing ageing sodium lights.
The LED lights are much more powerful than the old ones, enabling turf to be repaired quicker, although they cannot beat natural light.
Dunedin Venues chief executive Paul Doorn said switching to a synthetic surface could be "something that I think we'd have to look at in future years’’.
World Rugby has had a regulation since 2003 that specifies requirements for artificial turf and player welfare.
However, Mr Doorn said the All Blacks had yet to play on artificial turf, "and given that rugby is currently a large chunk of our business, we probably wouldn't be moving ahead of the curve in this regard until our key stakeholders have been engaged’’.
Mr Doorn said the stadium had hosted festivals and other events.
"I would take great pride in the fact that this year we've done a whole host of community activations on the pitch,’’ he said.
Cr Vandervis said the All Black sevens side had played on synthetic surfaces and several stadiums in Europe had hosted professional matches on them.
Rugby being the largest earner for the Dunedin stadium had been touted as a reason for keeping the mostly natural turf, he said.
"This is true, but these big games are so infrequent that I believe other users ... should use the stadium daily, and that the stadium should be run cost-effectively, like the Edgar Centre.’’
Cr Vandervis highlighted stadium debt of about $85 million and a need to reduce running costs as reasons to pursue a change of approach.
