The idea of putting a roof on seems to bubble up from time to time (driven to some degree or another by the Dom Post's desire to create a "story") so I think either the stadium trust, the city council or the regional council (maybe jointly) commissioned this report to make it go away forever.
I was more interested in a couple of the statements made by John Shewan and Fran Wilde at the end of the story.
Shewan: "What you would most likely look to is an indoor concert venue . . . It is clear from the consistency we get at the stadium that these touring concerts want more intimate settings."
"Wilde said Westpac Stadium remained a great venue for big sports fixtures. However, she believed the Basin Reserve should be upgraded to host fixtures that attracted smaller crowds. She agreed that the "next cab off the rank" should be a 10,000-seat, covered indoor concert venue".
The statement that "these touring concerts want more intimate settings" is, of course, one that could also be applied to football and rugby, who are actual customers of the stadium right now as opposed to assumed or predicted customers of a new indoor venue. Of course, John Shewan will say that's the point - we are currently failing to attract these size of concerts, we need to, they will be new business, and they will cover the cost of a new venue. But for me that's putting a lot of faith in a relatively small bunch of promoters to bring you enough regular business to make an indoor concert venue worthwhile. Meanwhile, Wellington Phoenix and Wellington Rugby can guarantee you 20-30 events a year but are unhappy staging many of those in a big, expensive stadium. They will both believe they can increase their average attendances in a boutique stadium even if total capacity is lower. And if Fran Wilde is suggesting upgrading the Basin to "host fixtures that attract smaller crowds" then she is already open to Westpac Stadium's current business being cannilbalised.
Also, a more intimate concert setting can still be achieved in a 10,000 seat outdoor stadium. It's not ideal, but still a major improvement on Westpac Stadium if it's those mid-tier bands/concerts you're trying to attract.
Basically, I don't think they should just be charging down the route of a new indoor concert venue. I'd be really interested to see how the business case for a 10,000 seat indoor stadium stacked up against the business case for a 10-12,000 seat outdoor stadium, especially if that outdoor stadium was cleverly designed to be used for both sport and concerts. In fact, I think the approach should be a single business case for a new venue with indoor or outdoor being two options (and maybe outdoor with retractable roof?). The extent to which either option would cannibalise or complement the existing stadium then just becomes part of a single business case.