'It would fit': The new city stadium option being floated for Canberra

Plus DNA Architects director Ajanthan Bala says it would leave ANU North Oval untouched and Sullivans Creek wasn't an issue - it could simply be diverted.

Bala's firm posted to-scale images on Facebook that show that not only would the 30,0000-seat Melbourne rectangular stadium at Turner, but the much bigger Lang Park would as well.

He said 30,000-seat Parramatta Stadium would also fit, but they haven't had time to create the graphic yet.

It reopens the possibility of a Civic Stadium the day after ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr officially removed it as a government option during questioning for the standing committee on Thursday.

The Canberra Times is also aware of a group of businessmen, sports officials and political powerbrokers that have been working behind the scenes to assist the ACT and federal governments in achieving stadium outcomes.

It's understood they have been working together to produce a document of outcome options, which could be presented to government officials in the coming weeks.

Barr instead wanted to redevelop Canberra Stadium, with Exhibition Park as his only fallback.

But both of those venues lacked atmosphere from surrounding bars and restaurants that would be just around the corner from a stadium in the city.

Plus a Canberra Stadium rebuild would need to be staged - so that both the Canberra Raiders and ACT Brumbies could continue using the venue during construction.

Barr also shot down ANU North Oval and Southwell Park as potential sites because both had difficulties.

The first was owned by ANU, while both sit on flood plains - with Sullivans Creek flowing through the middle of them.

What started as a thought bubble in the DNA office, quickly became a look into exactly what city venues could house a new stadium.

Bala, a Canberra Raiders fan, said his firm didn't have an agenda - they just wanted to have a conversation about the fact there's more than two options.

He felt the design could incorporate other infrastructure - like shops or parking - to ensure it wasn't just a game-day venue.

"I don't think we'd be looking at the North Oval site at all - it's the public space that's open at the moment," Bala said.

"The discussion's always been around we can't fit the size of stadium we want on the Civic [Pool] site so part of our thinking was you can actually fit the same or bigger than what you're looking at on a different site within the city if you're open to thinking about it a little bit differently.

"This site just sort of popped up.

"It's almost around trying to create an atmosphere around game day, because at the moment in the city there's no atmosphere around game day for any sport.

"We don't have an agenda with it at all. It's more about having a conversation about it."

Bala admitted the Turner residents would "hate" having a stadium built on their doorsteps, but he said there was the opportunity to actually make the space surrounding any potential stadium much nicer than the current unkempt park.

He said re-zoning the residential areas to CZ could allow anyone not wanting to live there to benefit financially from the sale of their land.

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Bala said the construction of modern stadiums meant they were steeper and more inward-facing, which meant much less noise and light escaped than older venues like the one at Bruce.

He dismissed Barr's concerns around it being built on a flood plain and said the creek could simply be diverted.

Bala pointed to the fact the new Townsville stadium, as well as Lang Park, were also both built on flood plains.

"We have got a creek running through it, which is a lot easier to deal with than a highway [like Parkes Way]," he said.

"There is an engineering outcome for that. They've done it in Townsville ... and it works.

"Obviously, [Lang Park] floods through and it's got the drainage around that.

"But it's a bit of an exercise in just re-routing a small edge of that creek to run parallel to McCaughey St for a little bit longer before it cuts across."

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