So here we are, again. Talking about a stadium in the city, again. Hoping, wishing and waiting, again.
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You're forgiven if you've been worn down by the 13 years of location options, designs and timeline talk, particularly if you were one of the originals who believed it would be built by 2020.
Many have given up by now, and it's hard to blame them. There are Canberrans who think this entire debate is a waste of time and spending up to $750 million is a waste of money.
But those people are the ones who should sit up and listen now, because the latest proposal to land on political doorsteps has more answers than questions.
Can it fit on the Civic pool site? Yes, with an inverted-bowl design reducing the land required for the build and improving the spectator experience.
Do you have to move Parkes Way? No. The above-mentioned design is more compact, so there's no impact to the road. Unless, of course, it's deemed more desirable to actually connect the city to the lake.
Who's going to pay for it? Well, if all goes according to the 36-page "blueprint", the impact on the ACT government bottom line will be minimal.
The reality is Canberrans will be paying for a new stadium in some way, shape or form. Building at Exhibition Park, or trying to redevelop Canberra Stadium, come with their own hefty price tags.
Canberra Stadium is old and needs a structural upgrade, so costs, and ongoing costs, are inevitable even if the decision now is to do nothing.
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The next move will shape Canberra's sporting and events future for the next 40 or 50 years. Making the wrong decision (location) for the right reasons (costs) will have a massive impact on a growing city, its sporting teams, concert-goers and events-lovers.
So the new vision for a Civic stadium is based on what happens about seven kilometres down the road at the sprawling 64-hectare AIS campus, where roughly only half of that land is still used by Olympic Games hopefuls.
Canberra Stadium hasn't been used for Australian Sports Commission activity for 20-odd years and the AIS Arena suffered so badly from a lack of investment it had to be closed two years ago.
Both Commonwealth-owned assets sit on land designated for one purpose: sport. There is a growing argument that if the AIS and sports commission no longer use them for that purpose, then the land should be returned to the ACT government at no cost to the territory.
In turn, the government could sell that land to develop more housing within the ACT, rather than building more cross-border suburbs, and use the money to offset the cost of a stadium and convention centre precinct via a public private partnership arrangement.
Sports commission boss Kieren Perkins has floated the idea of adding a solar farm to the AIS site to reduce costs, and said he had no plans to reduce the campus footprint.
Chris Grange, former ANU chief operating officer and planning advisor for the group behind the new stadium vision, said the land should be returned to the ACT.
"There is a compelling argument that land unilaterally included as 'Commonwealth Land', and hence excluded from the revenue potential of the territory over future years, but which has not been used for the core purposes of those national organisations should be returned to the Territory," Grange said.
"Additionally, any potential marginal use of this unused land to garner minor revenues, is unsupportable in contract to the strategic potential of the territory to deliver on large scale infrastructure projects based on the revenue that new, territory determined, use will generate."
It seems obvious and simple at a glance. The political reality, however, and the sports commission's own grand plans for an AIS redevelopment, muddies the waters.
Since when did a federal government do anything beneficial for Canberrans? Territory rights, you say? Definitely, but how many years did that take and it still needed David Pocock to push it along.
Andrew Leigh and Katy Gallagher, the ACT's two most senior federal politicians, have remained silent on the stadium issue so far.
But Pocock looms as a key man in the proposal. It was part of his election campaign this year and he is acutely aware a stadium design and location needs to be right the first time, not something a city will regret years down the track.
He wants the federal government to commit funding to a Canberra region city partnership, and is determined to reverse years of investment neglect in the capital.
But Pocock's not even the reason why stadium talk is different this time. It's the cross-sector co-ordination that has changed the conversation.
The business chamber, tourism leaders, the hospitality industry and the convention bureau among others. For the first time, they see a stadium in their future.
This plan, they say, is one that can work for all. This stadium plan, they say, isn't just for Raiders or Brumbies fans, or even future A-League content. It's for the city, the hotels, the restaurants, the bars, the cafes and the visitors. Only time will tell if we're still hoping, wishing and waiting for another decade.
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