By David Long of 
The proposed new precinct at Auckland's Quay Park features a stadium. (Mock-up image) Photo: Supplied / HKS ARCHITECTS
The future of where a national stadium might be built in Auckland should become clearer at the end of April.
Auckland councillor Shane Henderson is leading a working group that is examining four proposals for a stadium. Three are waterfront sites and one is a significant upgrade of Eden Park.
An assessor has been brought in to examine the four bids, to see how they match up and whether they would fulfil the needs of Auckland and the country.
Eden Park would look significantly different, including the installation of a roof, if upgrading it becomes the preferred option for a national stadium in Auckland. (Mock-up image) Photo: Supplied / Eden Park
"As a working group, we've called in the help of an independent assessor and the mayor's budget has helped out with that," Henderson said.
"They are currently kicking the tyres on all the bids and we had a meeting recently where we had a chat about criteria. So we'll assess those criteria with the assessor's help soon and hopefully going towards a paper that I'll draft for the governing body.
"We're looking at late April for that. So it's ticking along, but not going as quickly as some might hope. But we've got to be thorough."
The three proposals are the Te Tōangaroa bid in Quay Park including a 50,000 stadium, a 70-000 capacity sunken stadium at Bledisloe Wharf and a 55,000-seat facility at Wynyard Point. A revamped Eden Park would include building a roof.
All four options are being measured against a list of standards established by the working group.
"The criteria are closely aligned to the expression of interest process and all of the bidders have given us a wealth of information, on where you'd put the stadium, how you'd run the stadium and the finances of it are a really key component to that," Henderson said.
A mock-up aerial view of how Wynyard Point Stadium might look. Photo: Supplied
"Probably one of the main criteria is if you can do this with little or no help from the rate payers' pockets and make it a financially viable proposition.
"There are also things like working with mana whenua, the environmental elements and climate change. These are pieces of the puzzle we're working out."
Auckland mayor Wayne Brown said last year they were looking for proposals that required little or no ratepayer funding and Henderson said that has been accepted by all interested bidders.
"They knew very well the expectations," he said.
Land by Wynyard Point is also being looked at as a possible home for a stadium. Photo: Ricky Wilson / Stuff
"In a broad level, what you'd need to do to make that work is get private investment, and/or government investment.
"That's the broad picture because it is hard. A lot of stadiums around the world are in places where state governments have a heck of a lot more money than Auckland does.
"So we've got to respect the views of the ratepayer, that we've got to be cutting our cloth and it's bloody hard."
One of the proposals for a waterfront stadium is at Bledisloe Point. Photo: RNZ / Supplied
The purpose of the working group is to select a preferred option. After that, money needs to be secured to build it and Henderson says they do not know if the government is willing to contribute towards it.
"We've got no indication of that," he said.
"The government hasn't said anything either way on this kind of stuff. I think we're still a bit early to go through that path.
"The first and most important bit of the process is Auckland ratepayers through us, saying this is the preferred option.
"If you're going to do a national stadium in Auckland, this is what we want you to do. Then going to find the money is the next step, but the first step is where are you going to put it?"
Debates over what to do with Auckland stadiums have been raging for years. Options for a downtown stadium, or upgrading North Harbour Stadium were explored before the 2011 Rugby World Cup. In the end, $256 million was spent upgrading Eden Park.
Despite this, conversations have continued over whether there should be a waterfront stadium and what to do with the remaining facilities, without any real conclusions.
Henderson hopes that through this working group, a long-term solution can finally be found.
"This is why I volunteered to be the chair of the group," he said.
"I'm a sports fanatic and I'm really frustrated with the many years of nothing happening. We'd announce things, then nothing would happen out of it," he said.
"Every couple of months there seems to be something new in the paper about why don't we put a stadium here or there?
One of the proposed sites for a new stadium in Auckland is on Bledisloe Wharf. Photo: Ricky Wilson / Stuff
"So we needed a mechanism to address these ideas. I'm happy to be a part of it and I'm really confident that we will get something out of it.
"At this stage, I'm trying to keep expectations as low as possible, but all I can say is we're progressing really well, so that's a good start."
- This story was first published by Stuff.
