AMI Stadium lease extension talks with CRL ‘constructive’

The Christchurch City Council is confident the AMI Stadium lease will be renewed for another year and believes there is minimal risk of the Crusaders not being able to play there in 2018.

Council officials will meet with the Canterbury Rugby League (ARL) board on Wednesday to discuss another 12-month extension to the sub-leasing agreement which allowed the temporary stadium to be built in Addington in 2012.

The CRL has a lease at the ground – formerly known as Rugby League Park – until 2040. Rugby league was first played at the city council-owned ground in 1912. Since 1951, the CRL had been the main winter tenant at the Addington Show Grounds where it developed two pitches and spent over $700,000 on facilities.

The February 2011 earthquakes destroyed the original AMI Stadium in Waltham and Rugby League Park’s facilities were also damaged.

That meant the Crusaders had to play their 2011 Super Rugby games away from Christchurch and the city lost seven allocated Rugby World Cup games and a proposed Anzac rugby league test due to the lack of an elite-level venue, with QE II Stadium also destroyed.

City council head of recreation and sport David Bailey said the CRL made ‘‘a fantastic and very generous gesture’’ at the time in agreeing to a five-year sub lease. ‘‘so a stadium could be built for all sports’’.

That agreement allowed the temporary stadium – operated by the Christchurch Stadium Trust – be built in a 100-day period at a cost of $20 million, underwritten by the Government.

AMI Stadium has been the Crusaders’ home since. It has also hosted All Blacks tests, Rugby League World Cup games, a NRL match featuring the Warriors and the Penrith Panthers, an All Whites football international, Fifa under-20 World Cup football games and concerts, including a Bruce Springsteen show.

Bailey said a two-year extension was later negotiated and that term expires at the end of March.

Talks began with the CRL board last November after extending the lease for another year, by which time Bailey hopes rugby league’s future facilities at the new Nga Puna Wai sports hub will be finalised.

Once rugby league moves to Nga Puna Wai, Bailey is hopeful the CRL would surrender its lease of the Addington ground.

The CRL receives an annual lease fee as compensation for the lost revenue it accrued at Rugby League Park through gate and bar income.

In the 2015 financial year that figure was $38,000 – up from $32,439 the previous year. It is likely to have increased since the two-year lease extension was agreed.

But the key issue at stake in the latest least renewal discussions is rugby league’s future facilities at Nga Puna Wai sports hub in southwest Christchurch.

Talks began last November between the council and the CRL board and management team.

Bailey said he believed the CRL had been ‘‘extremely prudent’’ in asking for more time ‘‘to consider what is best for rugby league’’ in the future.

Talks so far had been ‘‘really constructive and healthy’’ with goodwill on both sides.

Asked what would happen if the CRL did not agree to another 12-month extension, Bailey said: ‘‘I don’t believe that’s a likely outcome.’’

He ‘‘did not believe there is a risk’’ of the Crusaders being unable to play there this season.

The talks with the CRL would focus on ‘‘how we can best support the efforts of rugby league in the next year’’.

League stalwarts are keen to ensure the CRL gets a full range of facilities at Nga Puna Wai.

In the first phase of the Nga Puna Wai development – due for completion in March 2019 – two sand-based rugby league pitches will be created with additional grass fields.

Plans are also afoot for a 600-seat stand.

CRL chairman Lew Timpson agreed with Bailey that talks had been constructive so far. He was hopeful it would be resolved, but said the CRL had to ensure ‘‘all our stakeholder are happy with the end result’’.

‘‘We want to look at what Rugby League Park gave rugby league for a considerable number of years and we want to make sure that we take the spirit of that to Nga Puna Wai.’’

Timpson said the council had been ‘‘very supportive’’ and the CRL, including current chief executive Shane Collins, had worked hard on strengthening the relationship between the two bodies.

The CRL sub-lease agreement allows the code to use AMI Stadium for representative matches and the club grand final.

The 2017 final had to be moved to Linfield Park after an excessively wet winter meant the AMI Stadium needed time to recover for future events, including the Mitre 10 Cup rugby season and the Rugby League World Cup tournament.