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Christchurch City Council has agreed to allocate $220 million towards the cost a new multi-purpose arena in the centre of the city.

Allocated $300 million from the New Zealand Government’s capital acceleration fund, gifted to the Council in this year’s budget, Wednesday night saw Councillors vote in favour to invest $220 million in the new venue. This is in addition to $254 million already committed by the Council to the project.

The other $80 million of the fund will support the Avon River Red Zone green spine and transport and road projects.

Without a major stadium since the devastating February 2011 earthquake irreparably damaged Lancaster Park, the development of a new stadium is seen as crucial to Christchurch’s regeneration.

Since the earthquake, major concert tours heading to the South Island have gone to Dunedin’s Forsyth Barr Stadium while the city also saw seven 2011 Rugby World Cup matches, scheduled for the stadium that year, moved to other cities.

In addition, the All Blacks have only played a handful of fixtures in the city since 2011 with New Zealand Rugby frequently calling for a new stadium to be built.

In April, the Government and Council agreed to develop a multi-purpose arena with a seating capacity of 30,000 to host major sporting and entertainment events.

A business case for venue is expected to be completed by the end of this year with construction of the stadium expected to start in 2020 with an anticipated 2024 completion date.

The new venue is expected to closely resemble Forsyth Barr Stadium.

In December 2015 the Council received a global settlement of $635 million from its insurers for all its facilities damaged in the 2010/11 Canterbury earthquakes, including Lancaster Park which hit had insured for $143 million.

Image: An artist's impression of Christchurch’s planned multi-purpose arena.

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