Wellington stadium says it can't afford $42m maintenance bill for the next decade

A "challenging" corporate environment means fewer people are leasing private suites and buying memberships at Wellington's regional stadium, its boss believes.

Hnry Stadium currently fills half the corporate boxes and has about 800 members, down from 2800 when it opened in 2000, chief executive Warrick Dent told Wellington City councillors at a council workshop last week about the council's next long-term plan.

However, the maintenance bill for the 34,500-seater stadium would top $42 million for the next decade. The trust running the stadium had told its owners, the Wellington City Council and Greater Wellington Regional Council, it could not afford the full maintenance programme itself.

"Over the past five years, the stadium has signalled to both the regional council and the city council that we are no longer able to pay our own way in terms of our full renewal programme. That's both in terms of our operating profits [which] are slim, if not existent, but also just the amount of renewals that building needs," he said.

In its infancy, the stadium could afford maintenance because many corporate boxes and memberships were sold, but they dwindled because of a "challenging" corporate environment.

The $42m over the next 10 years for maintenance included $16.5m in the next three years for things such as earthquake strengthening and upgrading the concourse floor. The rest was for the stadium's roof, stormwater pipes, electrics, air conditioning, pitch and cladding.

The stadium, which recently signed a new naming rights deal with Wellington-based sole trader accountancy firm Hnry, could not hike prices because its usual hirers were also facing similar financial challenges.

Although there were still more than 20 years of life left in it, the stadium was considered middle-aged, he said.

"There will need to be a discussion around the long-term future of the stadium at some stage."

The stadium has an estimated 50 years of useful life, according to the trust's business plan from 2001, the year after it opened. The trust's latest statement of intent from May said because the stadium has already been in operation for 26 years, it was timely to explore its longer-term future, potential redevelopment and other options.

Dent told councillors the realistic life of a New Zealand stadium was 50 years. By this point, overseas planners would have started contemplating knocking it down, but "we're clearly not doing that", he said.

Planning and building Christchurch's One New Zealand Stadium took 15 years and $656m, including $230m from the Crown. "It's not going to be a quick process but something that we do need to think about going forward," said Dent.

However, Dent believed there were still opportunities; more than 440,000 people passed the turnstiles the last financial year. Almost half of the spectators at the NRL Anzac round between the Warriors and Dolphins were not from Wellington; 40-45% of the crowd at Hot Wheels Monster Trucks were out-of-towners.

"The stadium continues to deliver benefit to the ratepayers and in particular, the commercial ratepayers of the city."