Stadium choice: Two false alternatives

Three events today will see chances for the waterfront behemoth advance, or recede.

• A meeting to protest the waterfront stadium and the railroading through of the waterfront option will be held in Auckland's Aotea Square at 12:30pm, with speakers from Rodney Hide to Keith Locke.
• The protest meeting is in advance of the Auckland City Council's meeting this evening to vote on their preference.
• That vote may be delayed by the court hearing this morning seeking an injunction on any vote, on the basis that councils are acting illegally by allowing insufficient time for consultation.

And it's worth reminding readers that the short time for a decision isn't the only railroading going on here: cheaper and better options were peremptorily ruled out by Minister Mallard in order to oppose as two false alternatives one expensive white elephant with another in order for the Bedpan to be the favoured choice.

Because it's clear if you list the stadiums in order of preference (my preference) based on either quoted costs (or estimated costs of $9,000/seat) and their long-term potential for actually being used regularly and contributing to the city, neither the full Eden Park option nor the Bedpan would figure highly.

1. Eden Park -- temporary stands (about $45-100m)
2. Jade Stadium -- additions to 60,000 ($80m)
3. North Harbour -- additions to 60,000 ($226m)
4. Carlaw Park -- new stadium and Domain renovations (say $750m, minus Eden Park's sale)
5. Wiri - new stadium and rail lines (say $750m, minus Eden Park's sale)
6. Telstra Stadium, Sydney -- (you could buy ownership for just A$200m -- Stadium New Zealand in Sydney!)
   
7. Waka Stadium -- what cost?
   
8. Eden Park -- gold-plated option ($385m plus)
9. Bedpan -- new stadium, plus new facility for Ports ($1 billion plus)

It's also worth remembering that the Eden Park Trust Board helped bring this whole farce about when they saw their chance at piles of government money coming their way, and they went from what was a proposal for essentially temporary stands to the current bout of grandomania.

RELATED: Stadium, Politics-NZ, Auckland