Christchurch stadium's food and drink sales a big revenue source

Half of the One New Zealand Stadium operator’s revenue will come from food and beverages as the company aims to get more financial independence from Christchurch City Council.

City council-owned Venues Ōtautahi is forecasting no need for operational or capital funding from ratepayers for the stadium – at least in the first three years of operation.

Venues Ōtautahi also manages the Christchurch Town Hall, Wolfbrook Arena, Apollo Projects Stadium, Hagley Oval and the Air Force Museum of New Zealand.

Chief executive Caroline Harvie-Teare presented the company’s 2026-29 draft Statement of Intent (SOI) to city councillors.

"We want to make sure we maintain our long term sustainable financial position. We want to continue to maintain that operational (funding) independence from council, and also to continue to self-fund major event attraction,” she said.

Unlike many other stadium operators, the SOI shows food and beverages are delivered in-house by Venues Ōtautahi, making up about half of its annual revenue.

Venues Ōtautahi is projecting $48m in revenue for the 2026/27 financial year. Hiring out the company’s venues and management services represents about 21% of revenue.

High-end hospitality bookings and commercial sponsorships, such as One New Zealand’s stadium naming rights, and ticketing make up most of the remaining revenue streams.

The SOI says city council capital funding for the stadium, such as building maintenance or upgrades, is not expected to be needed until seven years after it opened.

However, Venues Ōtautahi does require $12.2m over the next three years for upgrades to the town hall and Wolfbrook Arena.

While no operational funding has been forecast over the next three years, the city council will be reimbursing $1.55m to Venues Ōtautahi next financial year for stadium pre-opening costs.

The pre-opening has cost Venues Ōtautahi $4.3m for over the past three years.

The company will also receive tax subvention payments of $1.75m from the city council over the next three years, which will help off-set capital costs.

The SOI states Venues Ōtautahi is working for “greater financial independence” from the city council to reduce the cost to ratepayers.

Said Harvie-Teare: "Over time as the assets continue to age and repairs and maintenance costs increase for One New Zealand Stadium, this may change. However, it is the company’s intention to continue to develop and execute strong strategic commercial arrangements to maintain this position.”

In the 2027/28 financial year, Venues Ōtautahi has a goal of 17 major ticketed events, with more than 10,000 attendees, at the stadium. It hopes to pull in more than 545,000 attendees during the 2028/29 financial year.