Collingwood Magpies boss Craig Kelly backs pro-Canberra Civic stadium camp

Chief executive Craig Kelly was in Canberra on Friday with former Carlton star Mark Maclure as guest speakers for Ainslie Football Club's annual fundraiser.

The pair shared stories to a packed room when Kelly brought up the immense potential Canberra holds for a new sports and entertainment venue in the heart of the city.

Kelly was impressed by the ease of which he was able to go from his hotel, to Ainslie Football Club, and right down to the lake, and was swept up by the beauty of the capital in autumn. He also saw the value of the light rail that ran through the city.

It prompted a brainwave for Kelly - the city is where Canberra should have a new stadium, and for future planning to not consider it would be "negligent".

"Canberra is an amazing part of Australia that a lot of people haven't seen," Kelly later told The Canberra Times.

"In Tasmania the opportunity is there with the new stadium, and people knocking it need to do a bit more research and understand what those sort of stadiums have done for other cities.

"Down the track Canberra would be mad not to be exploring that. If they didn't it'd be negligent."

Helped by $240 million in federal funding, Tasmania is set to get a new AFL stadium and team, pending the Macquarie Point development passing in the upper house of their state parliament.

Kelly endorsed the benefits of city sporting venues such as Adelaide Oval and the "world-class" MCG.

"It's about what a stadium like that does for its own ecosystem," Kelly said.

"There's a proven model in Adelaide but probably the oldest model is the MCG. There's 100,000 people that can enter and then within half-an-hour they're out of the stadium, in the city precinct or going home on public transport."

Kelly said the stadium development debate was not just one he'd encountered in Canberra. It was happening nationally, he said.

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"It's something we as a country should discuss," he said. "I'm not saying this is just about sport, it needs to be for concerts, entertainment and to bring traffic."

Manuka Oval and Bruce Stadium are the capital's two largest existing sport venues, with the former 6km from the city centre.

Two recent bids have attempted to get the ACT government to reconsider Civic for a new stadium after the Civic pool site option was dismissed.

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