The debate around Eden Park is ongoing. Will it be a stadium of the future or the site of new housing?

Does the country's most famous stadium, Eden Park, have a long-term future? Revenue from top sport is set to fall, and a bid to stage concerts has been scuttled by opponents who want a new downtown stadium. Todd Niall explores the complicated politics clouding the way ahead.

Grant Elliott repeatedly thumped the toe of his bat into the crease as South Africa's Dale Steyn prepared to bowl the penultimate ball in the 2015 Cricket World Cup semi-final.

Five runs stood between exit and ecstasy for the Black Caps.

Five thumps and Elliott swung the bat, striking a six into the stands to put the Black Caps into the final - writing another historic episode in Eden Park's then 112-year history.

Andrew Cornaga Grant Elliott celebrates after hitting the winning runs against South Africa in the 205 Cricket World Cup semi-final at Eden Park.

Four years earlier, last-minute ring-in Stephen Donald sealed the All Blacks' second Rugby World Cup final at the stadium, ending a 24-year drought since winning the inaugural cup at the stadium in 1987.

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* Eden Park concert spat: Helen Clark fires back at Sir Ray Avery's 'fall from grace' comments

* Helen Clark's concert opposition a 'fall from grace': Sir Ray Avery

Donald was brought back into the squad part-way through the tournament, and onto the hallowed turf when the All Blacks lost their third kicker in a row to injury.

Donald's penalty kick added the All Blacks' last points in a match in which his team held off a charge from the French to win 8-7.

His unlikely cameo role was immortalised in a television docu-drama, and likewise written into the stadium's folklore.

supplied Stephen Donald (centre) celebrates with Richard Kahui (left) and Brad Thorn after winning the 2011 Rugby World Cup

The big question is, will the memories of those moments be all that's left of Eden Park in a couple of decades' time?

Less than a decade after an almost quarter-billion-dollar do-up, its most vocal opponent wants the "spiritual home of rugby" gone, while a passionate supporter calls it part of Auckland's DNA.

Eden Park and its history are caught in a swirling tide of disconnected or conflicting interests, and no-one is yet placed to lead it to either salvation or demolition.

"My view is that it doesn't have a future here in this residential neighbourhood," says former prime minister Helen Clark, who lives in a tree-lined street three blocks away.

Clark led opposition earlier this year which caused the park to abandon hopes of staging its first-ever night concert, in conjunction with the Sir Ray Avery Foundation.

"We believe in a way that there's a life force here, and it has a degree of mana associated with it," says former All Black Sir Michael Jones.

CHRIS SKELTON/STUFF All Black legend Sir Michael Jones sees Eden Park as the spiritual home of rugby.

Jones in his All Black debut in 1987 scored the team's first try in the opening match of the World Cup.

Caught between those conflicting views is a Trust Board which owns the Kingsland park but has no means to secure its future.

The Government appoints five trustees but wants and has no part in decision-making, and Auckland Council guarantees the stadium's debt but has no say.

Mayor Phil Goff continues to flirt with the long-term idea of building a multi-purpose stadium in the city centre, a move that could only happen if Eden Park was bulldozed.

Goff commissioned a $935,000 consultant's report which concluded a downtown stadium could be feasible, but posed more questions than it answered.

Demolition would be sacrilege to those who point to Eden Park's 115-year history, and its standing in the global rugby world. Though it all began with cricket.

Local blacksmith Harry Ryan in 1902 leased a rock-strewn paddock and cleared it for cricket - his Kingsland Cricket Club merged with Eden a year later, and bought the ground.

The Rugby Union's need to accommodate increasingly large crowds brought rugby to the ground in 1914, building a grandstand in exchange for exclusive winter rights.

Its international rugby history had a shaky start in 1921, with fans shaken by the All Blacks' loss to the Springboks.

The country's first hosting of the Empire Games, later named the Commonwealth Games, was at the stadium in 1950.

It was on Eden Park's pitch that New Zealand notched up its first test cricket win, beating the West Indies in 1956.

Royals have paraded before the public over the decades, starting with the Queen Mother in 1966, the Queen four years later, and Prince Charles and Princess Diana in 1983.

In a darker moment in 1981, anti-Springbok tour demonstrators clashed with police on surrounding streets, and one protester in a light plane dropped flour bombs on the turf, one striking All Black Gary Knight.

France's love affair with the ground was sparked in 1979 with the 24-19 Bastille Day victory over the All Blacks, a win repeated in 1994 - the last time the All Blacks lost at the stadium.

That almost quarter-century unbeaten run has seen Eden Park dubbed the All Blacks' "fortress".

The glory days continued under the Auckland Cricket/Rugby combo via the Eden Park Trust Board until the stadium was upgraded for the 2011 Rugby World Cup.

The revamped 50,000-seat ground also hosted the 2015 Cricket World Cup.

A $190 million government grant to rebuild much of the stadium, came with five additional government appointed trustees, alongside two each from the Auckland Rugby Union and the Auckland Cricket Association.

A point crucial to Eden Park's future though is that those five newer trustees are not beholden to Government, but solely to work in the best interests of stadium.

Eden Park is now on several levels, an island.

It is an international sports stadium in the midst of an increasingly gentrified neighbourhood of villas.

PETER MEECHAM/STUFF The sun sets over the Waitakere ranges in Auckland's west as the last shards of light illuminate Eden Park as seen from Mt Eden in 2013.

Despite its global renown, Auckland's planning rule book the Unitary Plan limits night events to 25, crimping the stadium's potential revenue.

Eden Park's Trust Board can afford to run it year-by-year, but not to clear its debts or contribute significantly to the next refurbishment if there is to be one.

Auckland Council's subsidiary Regional Facilities Auckland (RFA) runs most of the other venues, and is rolling out a strategy that may pull international cricket out of Eden Park, to a revamped Western Springs - backed by New Zealand Cricket.

The council has also guaranteed a $40 million loan made by ASB Bank to the Eden Park Trust Board, but is expected next year to absorb that debt onto its books in some form.

That work is continuing behind closed doors, and it's not clear whether or how the council will gain a voice in the future of the stadium, even after taking over the debt.

The Government, despite holding a majority of seats on the trust board, and having effectively funded the current stadium, is keeping out of it.

"The Crown has no ownership or 'shareholding interest'. Eden Park is not 'owned' in anyway by the Crown," says Finance and Sports Minister Grant Robertson.

"Any discussion on refinancing Eden Park's debt (for which Council is the guarantor), are for the Council and Trust Board alone."

The problem is the council and trust board have had little contact, nor has Eden Park been involved in RFA's stadium strategy, which includes discussion of a future CBD venue.

"Eden Park remains an under-utilised public amenity, due in no small part to Auckland Council's role as regulator (by way of setting consent conditions) and competitor (in the form of Regional Facilities Auckland (RFA) who operate all other major outdoor stadiums in Auckland)," wrote trust board chair Doug McKay in last year's annual report.

"The most obvious illustration of this is the ongoing failure of its advisor and operational agency, Regional Facilities Auckland, to effectively engage on the plan with non-Council facilities such as Eden Park," wrote McKay .

None of the key players are talking on the record, such is the sensitivity around what comes next for Eden Park.

The battle over the proposed charity concert illustrated the hollowness of planning rules which allow Eden Park to seek permission for up to six evening concerts a year.

Each application would need a planning hearing, and could be appealed by even a single opponent, to the Environment Court, making the venue a no-go for promoters.

Two separate groups - one largely supporting the park, and the other less so - informally represent unspecified numbers of residents.

CHRIS SKELTON/STUFF Jose Fowler, Chair, Eden Park Residents' Association

The park itself runs its own residents' group, The Hood, which has giveaways and stages barbecues to help spread its messages.

"This is the national stadium, it's the home of rugby worldwide, it has a great impact, a great heritage, and it needs to stay," says Jose Fowler of the Eden Park Residents Association.

Fowler and others tell stories of emotional French visitors, standing in tears or kissing the turf where their country beat the All Blacks twice, but lost both World Cup finals.

The similarly-named Eden Park Neighbours Association has led the charge to impose and uphold restrictions on events which it feels hurt the quality of life around the stadium.

"When we moved in it was obviously Saturday and Sunday afternoon games, the venue itself was quite a bit smaller," says president Mark Donnelly a former Auckland City councillor.

CHRIS SKELTON/STUFF Mark Donnelly, President, Eden Park Neighbours' Association

Donnelly insists the group he heads is not against the park, though the park quietly begs to differ.

Donnelly has an ally in Helen Clark, also a long-term resident who moved in in the 1980s.

Clark led the charge against the concert, clashing publicly with the Eden Park Trust Board, its chief executive Nick Sautner, and concert co-promoter Sir Ray Avery.

"Any significant event here - there's parking restrictions, your family and friends can't visit - it is awkward," says Clark.

"Those are among the reasons why the neighbours' association will dig in against an expansion of Eden Park as a major entertainment venue because it would really make life very complicated for families around here," she says.

The Trust Board itself is not talking about its future, which is not just about how long the stadium might be there, but how it pays its way for however long its future is.

Making money is one of few goals set down for trustees in the 2009 version of legislation controlling the Trust Board.

"To administer Eden Park and the Trust Assets on a prudent commercial basis so that Eden Park is a successful financially autonomous community asset," to put it in legalese.

The Trust made a record $5.6 million operating profit in 2017, fuelled by the Lions Rugby Tour, but things look leaner for 2019 with a Rugby World Cup in Japan cutting tests to just one.

Stuff understands the Trust Board has views on how the stadium could gain a new lease of life, but someone else would have to foot the bill, and loosen the planning restrictions.

CHRIS SKELTON/STUFF Eden Park has a long history and its future may be changing

A hint of how it sees its future could be seen in a public opinion survey it commissioned from UMR during May, over the concert issue.

Eighty-two per cent of the 1000 surveyed, backed 40 events and 15 night concerts a year at Eden Park, "if there was a retractable roof deadening the noise".

Opponents of the charity concert challenged the methodology of the survey.

So what are the likely scenarios in the stalemate around the future of Eden Park?

* The Eden Park Trust Board seeks a relaxation of Unitary Plan restrictions allowing a wider range of events, and longer evening hours.

A unilateral move by the board would seem unlikely given the divisive and combative response it would trigger at least in the surrounding community and with local politicians.

* Work progresses on the idea of a downtown stadium, requiring a business case that compares that viability against redeveloping Eden Park.

This is a scenario laid out in the "Venue Development Strategy" by RFA. However, the council has allocated no funding up to 2028 to make significant advances. It reviews the Ten year Budget in 2021

* Auckland Council formally takes over the Trust Board's debt and plays a bigger role in the future management of Eden Park.

The debt move seems likely, but any change in Eden Park's governance would require a change in the legislation under which the board's Trust Deed operates. That would take time and require government buy-in.

* Status Quo, or almost.

A "do-little" option seems the most likely, within the coming decade at least. Eden Park's viability would worsen if international one-day, and Twenty20 cricket move to a revamped Western Springs stadium. Financial and maybe even management arrangements might change, but little else.

Exploring the alternative uses for Eden Park's site has proved difficult.

Two prominent developers didn't even want to discuss the possibilities, either because of their attachment to the stadium as it is, or the sensitivity surrounding its future.

Housing is an obvious alternative use, with the 10 hectare site - equivalent to three blocks - sitting in a popular suburban area, across the road from a train station.

Helen Clark sees it as logical for affordable housing.

"I think some kind of mix of residential, a little local park which we're short of in this area, maybe some commerce along the street frontage," Clark says.

PHIL DOYLE/STUFF Whenever there's a big event at Eden Park, nearby residents are faced with parking restrictions - preventing people from visiting. It's one of the reasons why residents will fight against the expansion of the park as a major entertainment venue, former PM Helen Clark says.

Clearing massive concrete structures wouldn't be cheap, and with the surrounding neighbourhood zoned for single homes with character protection, the density and style of new homes on the stadium site is unclear.

Ironically, central suburb intensification and improved public transport might work in Eden Park's favour.

The completion of the City Rail Link in 2024, creating a downtown loop, improves the frequency of trains past Eden Park, and enables direct services to it, from the south and east.

In the meantime, the economics of a stadium like Eden Park are challenging.

Even within its core cricket and rugby line-up, life is getting more difficult.

Eden Park had to miss out on one lucrative night game on the 2019 Indian tour, because the demands of an Indian broadcasters pushed match timing beyond the stadium's curfew.

Pursuing a planning approval could have cost up to $200,000, a bill that would have fallen to the stadium, while New Zealand Cricket picked up the broadcasting revenue.

The five-day "pink ball" cricket test against England, run over five evenings in May, also needed planning approval costing $60,000 to run late on the Sunday night.

The heady days of the Blues rugby franchise in the 1990s are also long gone.

"They were always full stadiums, 30,000 people. We're now getting an average of 5000, which is terrible," says passionate park supporter Jose Fowler.

"We definitely need to do something about it - more events of differing sorts so we can make sure this place continues."

The hypothetical right to stage up to six concerts a year also appears out of practical reach following the collapse of the contested charity concert plan.

Park historian and stadium tour guide Graham Walton insists Eden Park is under-loved.

CHRIS SKELTON/STUFF Graham Walton, Eden Park tour guide and historian.

"The thing that strikes me really strongly as I take the tours is that Eden Park overseas is venerated and revered - it is an iconic sporting stadium, New Zealanders don't appreciate that."

"I can't believe that New Zealand is so blase about it. If we lose Eden Park we lose part of our sporting heritage, it's a wonderful place," says Walton.

If only it was that simple.