Dr Megan Woods: The Influencers

It was exciting last month to announce that we’ve begun a series of community workshops with local sporting codes, businesses and the entertainment sector to co-design our city’s new Multi-Use Arena.

As part of the Acceleration Fund that was announced in Budget 2018, the council has requested that $220 million of funding goes towards the new arena and the Government has agreed to earmark the funding for that project.

This funding brings Canterbury’s much needed arena one step closer. It will be a huge boost for the city and it’s important we get it right. That’s why we are bringing the sporting codes, local businesses and entertainment sector together to help us make sure the design is right and the building is fit for purpose. The workshops will allow each of these sectors to hear what they need from the arena, and how it can be made to work best for them. From here a full investment case will be developed to ensure the project is well designed and stacks up financially.

These workshops will ensure the business case is strong and I’m hopeful of seeing early construction work begin in 2021.

We’ve seen with the Metro Sports Facility how working hand in hand with local people can lead to a better result – there we were able to turn around a $70 million budget blowout and get the project back on track. Working with the local community will ensure the arena is fit for purpose and best suited the needs of Christchurch.