Waikato Times: Regional theatre to get new $1.3 million grant from city council

Originally published in Waikato Times, Friday 30 May 2025.

By Stephen Ward.

An illustration of the future Waikato Regional Theatre's interior. The seating on the bottom floor is the area due to be removable.

Another $1.3 million in direct Hamilton City Council development support is to be put into the new regional theatre to help install removable seating.

The council says the cash will come from unused money already earmarked for the theatre yet councillors were split 8-4 on the decision in a public excluded part of this week’s council meeting.

It follows a statement from the theatre’s general manager last year that the chances of the city council having to pay more for the theatre’s construction were “very slim” but “never say never”.

The money will go to the Waikato Regional Property Trust so it can install removable seating on the theatre’s ground floor, increasing its community use and revenue options.

An artist’s impression of what the Waikato Regional Theatre will look like, once the building is opened and filled with people later this year. IMAGE: Jasmax.

It follows discussions with various parties and, this year, with theatre operator Live Nation New Zealand.

Those discussions resulted in the new removable seating system being added to the $80 million facility to have the option of a large flat floor space. When removed, the seats will go under the stage.

The removable seating would make the theatre a more flexible space with a quick turnaround between 600 seats on the lower level and a space for 1000 standing people, the council said.

When extended, the floor will create a flat space for gala dinners, standing concerts, ballroom dancing, and other performances where people could stand or dance.

Scaffolding was recently taken down to reveal the theatre’s refurbished façade. PHOTO: Christel Yardley / WAIKATO TIMES.

The council’s grant for the seating was confirmed after the trust said it had exhausted all other funding options, the council said in a statement on Friday.

The statement said the grant would come from existing budgets. That involved money earmarked for the theatre’s annual property, equipment and asset maintenance funding council grant which had not been spent due to the delay in the facility’s opening.

The extra funding is in addition to the $25 million council contributed towards the new theatre’s construction, development contributions relief, an event sponsorship fund contribution towards opening events, and the annual property, equipment and asset maintenance grant.

Deputy mayor Angela O’Leary said the new grant was about supporting the heart and soul of the community.

Mayor Paula Southgate said ratepayers were expecting a theatre that is top quality and will last for generations.

However, four councillors voted against giving the $1.3 million.

One of them, economic development committee chairperson Ewan Wilson said on Friday that due to the level of past council support he would have preferred the council to offer a loan instead of a grant.

He said the unspent money which will make up the new grant had been borrowed by the council previously.

The theatre’s general manager Gus Sharp was “really pleased” with the council decision, saying “we pressed play” on the removable seating plan “a wee while ago and then sought to find funding”.

“We were unsuccessful in that” and they went back to the council for help. “They’ve come to the party which is incredible for us”, he said on Friday.

It saved the theatre from taking out a loan which would be “a handbrake on our impact for years”.

The seats would be on “moveable wagons on air cushions” and “[we’ll] roll them under the stage and they live underneath everything”.

At a city council meeting early last year, Sharp said the chances of the city council having to pay more for the theatre’s construction were “very slim” but “never say never”.

He acknowledged the theatre had now had to come back to the council but he was confident this would be the last time before opening later this year.

“We are reaching the tail end. The uncertainties are now known. It’s frankly getting too late for us to make any changes of this nature.

“So, no, there’s nothing on the horizon that would lead us to come back.”

Sharp felt that even with the extra grant the theatre would be delivering great value for money to Hamilton.