A new football stadium in downtown Auckland is back in play, a decade after the city's politicians and rugby establishment said no to a stadium on the waterfront.
The Warriors have secured their future at Mt Smart Stadium until 2028 and sometime after that Eden Park will need major investment with nothing set aside in the bank.
Chris Brooks, the council boss charged with salvaging the city's troubled stadiums strategy, says there is a view the city needs to decide whether to reinvest in Eden Park or build a new stadium.
Warriors managing director Jim Doyle wants a stadium as the home of rugby, league and football in the heart of the city.
The transport was really good and a stadium would create a vibrancy in the centre of town that Melbourne already enjoys, said Mr Doyle.
Eden Park Trust board chairman Doug McKay was unaware of talk about a new stadium, but hoped to be part of any future conversation.
Eden Park, he said, could cover its interest bill and running costs but could not put aside depreciation funding of about $7 million to $8 million a year for future work.
"What that means in [10 or 20 years'] time when you need an upgrade is you have to go cap in hand to the Government and the council," he said.
Mr McKay said the board was hugely disappointed at being shut out of the stadium strategy, which has resulted in the Warriors staying at Mt Smart Stadium until 2028.
The first incarnation of the strategy in 2012 called for the Warriors to move to Eden Park, an unpopular choice with the club and fans. A proposal in 2014 to move to QBE Stadium in Albany, far from the league heartlands in West and South Auckland, was greeted with equal opposition.
Mr McKay said the stadium strategy was in tatters with surplus assets eating their heads off and nobody making the hard decisions to rationalise and make the city's stadiums fit for purpose.
Mr Brooks, the Regional Facilities Auckland boss who took over the stalled strategy from his predecessor Robert Domm, described the latest outcome as pragmatic.
The early plans, he said, were probably not achievable but a "refresh" and longer-term process would achieve the right outcome.
Other changes include an extension for speedway to remain at Western Springs until 2019, by which time an alternative site at Colin Dale motorsport park in South Auckland or an undisclosed site in the north is found.
About $12 million is budgeted for a new cricket ground at Western Springs and a $12 million makeover of QBE Stadium will proceed, but the original work programme has been put back from now until after the World Masters Games next year.
In 2006, Rugby World Cup Minister Trevor Mallard offered to pay $500 million for a national stadium on the waterfront.
The Eden Park rugby establishment campaigned against the idea and lobbied for an eventual $250 million worth of improvements for the 2011 Rugby World Cup. The city's regional council rejected the idea and the former Auckland City Council wanted the stadium on a different site.
