While Christchurch City Council has confirmed how the risk for its new $683 million One NZ Stadium at Te Kaha is placed, it has declined to reveal the cost of the cover.
Officials say they will not release the stadium’s insurance premium now or in future, citing commercial sensitivity. City council finance committee chair Sam MacDonald said keeping the premium confidential is part of the council’s approach to the insurance market. “You have to ask what’s driving the best value for the ratepayer? There’s always going to be times where in order to save ratepayers, and get the best value, that some stuff needs to be protected,” MacDonald said, as reported by ODT.
The council has also refused to disclose how much the stadium is insured for during the construction period or how much has been paid in premiums to date, again referring to the terms of the construction contract. After completion, it intends to publish the insured value but not the ongoing annual premium. “We will be able to release the insured value but the premium is commercially sensitive,” a council spokesperson said. The same spokesperson said the council will meet the full cost of insuring the stadium once it joins the operational portfolio. “The annual cost of this is unknown at this stage. This will depend on the insurance markets at the time the council renews its policies,” the council said.
Christchurch City Council says One NZ Stadium is insured under a contract works policy during construction and will be added to the council’s wider material damage programme once the venue is complete. During the build, the project is covered by contract works insurance that, according to the council, “typically covers accidental damage to a new construction, building materials, and protects against risks like fire, theft, vandalism, and natural disasters during construction.” Once the stadium is finished, “the council’s material damage policy will apply.”
The city has identified several insurers on its property programme, including local carriers Vero, NZI, AIG, and Chubb, with additional capacity from Lloyd’s of London underwriters. The stadium will sit within a multi‑insurer structure that spreads property and catastrophe exposure across domestic and international markets. The council will own the venue and treat it as a rateable asset. It expects to pay about $1 million a year in rates to itself on the stadium. The draft 2025 capital value was $645.65 million based on construction progress to mid‑December, with a final value to be set ahead of the 2026‑27 financial year once remaining work is reflected on the rating roll.
The insurance structure for One NZ Stadium has been developed in the context of Lancaster Park, which was badly damaged in the February 2011 earthquake and later written off. At the time of the quake, Lancaster Park was insured for $143 million, a figure that drew criticism because it was below estimates of the cost to restore the venue. In 2015, Christchurch City Council reached a $635 million settlement covering all earthquake‑damaged infrastructure and facilities. The payment relating to Lancaster Park was included in that overall agreement, and settlement conditions prevented the council from directly using the proceeds to fund a new stadium. Responding to questions about avoiding a repeat of underinsurance, the council says it has strengthened its valuation process. A spokesperson said: “The council’s assets are valued by independent valuers and quantity surveyors annually for insurance purposes,” and MacDonald has said the new stadium is “certainly not under‑insured.”
The insurance of One NZ Stadium sits within a broader pattern of how New Zealand local authorities manage natural catastrophe risk across roads, water assets, buildings, and flood‑protection infrastructure. Councils typically use a mix of commercial insurance, mutual, or pooled arrangements and self‑insurance, alongside an expectation that central government will contribute to eligible recovery costs for essential services after major events.
Not all assets are fully insured. Sector‑level reviews have found that a significant share of the carrying value of local government infrastructure is uninsured, with some councils choosing to rely partly on borrowing capacity, reserves, or the spread of assets across regions instead of insuring everything to full replacement value. Some councils publish high‑level information about their insurance programmes in meeting papers or annual reports, including total premiums, loss limits, and contributions to schemes such as the Local Authority Protection Programme (LAPP). Others release less detail. Christchurch’s position on One NZ Stadium, where insured values are expected to be disclosed but premiums will not, places the project toward the more confidential end of that disclosure range.
As the insurance arrangements move from construction to operational cover, work on the stadium is entering its final phase. In a February update, Christchurch City Council project director Kent Summerfield said: “The team are just adding the last details alongside testing and commissioning all the systems around the building.” The stadium has been built for sport and entertainment events and includes a large audio‑visual and lighting system. “The stadium has been designed to provide world-class sound quality for concerts as well as a cauldron-like atmosphere for sporting contests,” Summerfield said.
The venue has 16 speaker arrays, each with eight to 10 speakers, two layers of ribbon boards around the stands, and two big screens. Sports and exterior lighting can be set to different modes and colours. Couches, bar leaners, tables, and chairs have been installed in corporate suites, and crews are completing seat numbers on the 25,000 permanent seats. Summerfield said the project “remains on budget and on time.” More than 3,700 people have worked on the build, logging over 2.3 million hours. “We simply wouldn’t be at this point if it wasn’t for all their hard work and dedication,” Summerfield said. Te Kaha is due to be handed over to operator Venues Ōtautahi in April. The first major event booked is the Super Rugby Super Round, scheduled for April 24 to 26, with further concerts and other events planned. The handover will mark the shift from contract works to an ongoing mix of property, business interruption, and liability exposures at one of New Zealand’s newest large stadiums.
