Nothing to stop a commercial events venue in Wellington

Stuff reports:

Wellingtonians have once again been left watching from the sidelines as Lorde’s freshly announced Ultrasound world tour snubs the capital.

The Grammy-winning Kiwi star will perform just two New Zealand shows in February 2026, at Auckland’s Spark Arena and Christchurch’s Wolfbrook Arena. …

Music industry newsletter Boiler Room author Chris Schulz said this wasn’t just a Lorde problem, it’s a Wellington one.

“Wellington is desperately missing a larger venue,” he said.

“They’ve got TSB Arena, which holds about… 4500, and then the next step up from that is Sky Stadium, which is like 35,000. So for artists to fall somewhere in between there… there’s just nowhere really for them to play.”

It would be nice to have a medium sized venue in Wellington, but it is not the role of ratepayers (or taxpayers) to provide one. If there is enough commercial demand for such a venue, then nothing is stopping a private operator from establishing one.

But what we don’t want is another loss making enterprise like Takina.