The Queenstown Events Centre is about to be super-sized.
The council last month approved a concept design tender process for a new stadium, beside the existing one, which will have four full-sized basketball courts, an 800sqm fitness centre, other facilities and increased parking.
The project cost is about $46 million, approved in the long-term plan last September.
Sport and recreation manager Simon Battrick said they would like a concept design pre-Christmas and "potentially" construction would be under way by the end of March next year.
The extension cannot come soon enough, given how stretched current facilities are. Mr Battrick said with 2800 members for a 798sqm gym, "that’s packing them in like sardines".
The new stadium was due to be completed in about 2028, "but we are looking at options of how we potentially can bring forward some money to actually make it happen a lot faster", he said.
"I really appreciate the patience of our sporting clubs, who have been suffering for a number of years with the sheer capacity of people wanting to play, so having this opportunity to try and do this as fast as we possibly can is something I would certainly look at."
The stadium will be built across the existing carpark and the field beyond the hockey turf.
There will also be parking and an access road off Grant Rd — the number of parks will rise from 340 to 533.
Mr Battrick said a new stadium would mean Queenstown could host basketball, netball, volleyball and badminton tournaments at a regional, national or even international level.
Squash, which operated from inadequate facilities by the Rec Ground, was "not in our core scope at this point", but might be an add-on, he said. As for indoor cricket, "we can either put an extra little bit of space on the side of the courts or just do drop-down nets".
