I am astonished that members of the Otago Regional Council should so easily accept a very substantial level of funding responsibility for the proposed $188 million Dunedin Stadium project.
I oppose the present proposition that would levy Otago Regional Council ratepayers an initial capital sum of $37.5 million.
It is surprising that there has not been more noticeable public clamour over this issue, which calls for a scale of local body investment that is quite unprecedented in Otago other than for basic water and sewage treatment services, road works and the like.
What's more, this particular capital funding will lead to unknown regular expenditures in the years to come to cover inevitable shortfalls in revenue and depreciation.
This latest and admittedly bold initiative is a quite a grandiose imposition on ratepayers which, despite assurances from various quarters, is a gift to Otago rugby enthusiasts.
Funding of such grandiose stadiums, designed to provide flamboyant settings for the forthcoming world rugby event in a few years' time, has created quite a stir in local government circles in the major metropolitan centres.
The scale of residential populations that make up the catchments of these stadiums varies considerably.
Wellington got off to a flying start with the successful "Cake Tin" amenity.
But it has a much less expensive asset set amidst a potential residential population catchment of about 900,000 - three times the population of Otago and Southland.
I believe their ratepayer contribution is more modest, too.
The Auckland province, with a comparable population of more than 2 million - nearly seven times the southern population embraced by the Dunedin Stadium - has had constant wrangles with Government and taxpayer contributions and again a much smaller ratepayer backing.
But here in Dunedin, an unholy alliance of three ambitious top administrators - Jim Harland of the DCC, Graeme Martin of the ORC, and Malcolm Farry of the Carisbrook Stadium Trust - has somehow managed to persuade Otago councils of the validity of this extraordinary extravagance.
My family are not rugby enthusiasts but it is obvious the sport of rugby is, as former Anglican Dean of Dunedin, the Very Rev Tim Raphael once said, a veritable religion for our people.
I have some understanding of the administrative challenge of maintaining an economically viable amenity of this nature.
For in addition to a couple of decades as a senior professional advocate for Otago, I was also for nearly a decade the unpaid chairman of the management committee of the present Dunedin Stadium - the first such indoor stadium built in New Zealand and funded almost entirely by voluntary contributions.
I have been astonished at the scale of investment now committed by the Dunedin City Council for the proposed Stadium.
Back in the 1980s I well recall mayor (Sir) Cliff Skeggs proclaiming to us fellow councillors that we then lived in a "user-pays" society. I guess that sums up my attitude to the proposed stadium.
But to delegate $37.5 million funding to the Otago Regional Council is in my view totally unacceptable.
This sum is equal to the ORC's total annual funding other than capital expenditure for the forthcoming year, when we exclude the cost of the new administrative building along the harbour basin.
Admittedly the ORC enjoys significant dividend funding from the Port Otago operations, but when the regional councils were established the sort of diversion of ratepayer funding now under review was never envisaged.
Furthermore, it is significant that both of the adjoining regional councils have earlier changed their names to Environment councils that more closely signify their function.
The big item on the agenda for the foreseeable future is the sustainable development of Otago's resources - a key element of the ORC mission statement.
Despite all the public discussion about mitigation of excessive air pollution and consequential climate change, we have barely started the process.
And here in Otago the ORC is surely the vehicle that should be leading this urgent mission.
Yet the proposed Dunedin Stadium is based on the expectation that thousands will travel hundreds of kilometres from the rural parts of Otago to the handful of big events thus adding to the burden of carbon emissions.
This aspect of the building the Dunedin Stadium has received very scant recognition to date.
Were the Dunedin City Council and Otago Regional Council to seriously review the potential of a much shorter direct highway route between the City and Central Otago, one could see some material progress to the better management of carbon emissions.
There are good reasons why more multipurpose amenities be better placed in places such as Oamaru, Balclutha, Queenstown and Central Otago.
This would be more advantageous to the wider participation in good health promoting activity rather than television dominated spectacles where a handful of big commercial enterprises scoop the financial dividends.
The advent of professionalism in sport has produced little profit to Otago rugby and its steadily declining attendances.
For all the talk about multipurpose utility, the central theme of the Dunedin Stadium is rugby. Let those who are so keen on football pay the bill.
As for the Dunedin City Council support - I find this quite staggering, and can think of all sorts of projects that would win greater long term dividends.
What about a contribution to railing the logs from the Taieri Gorge to Port Chalmers? What about bringing back the High Street cable car? That would be a worldwide attraction.
- Alexandra resident Jolyon Manning is a retired former chief executive of the Otago Council.
