'Waste of time': ACT Brumbies and Canberra Raiders officials slam ACT government's decision to scrap a Civic stadium

Both clubs feel they have been strung along for more than a decade after Chief Minister Andrew Barr first raised the need for a stadium revamp in 2009.

Barr's preferred option for the best part of 10 years has been to build a stadium in the city, but he officially signalled a change of direction this week after months of playing down its prospects.

The move has angered the Brumbies and Raiders as they continue to play at one of the oldest rectangular venues in their respective competitions while other cities invest in infrastructure and move stadiums to central locations.

Raiders boss Don Furner went to the $800 million Sydney Football Stadium reopening on Friday night to get a first-hand look at what Canberra was missing out.

The Raiders and Brumbies had been seeking a meeting with Barr about the stadium plans for Canberra, but Brumbies chairman Matt Nobbs feared it would be unproductive.

"We won't engage with the ACT government or the chief minister on the subject of the stadium until it is a realistic proposition," Nobbs said.

"We've wasted more than 10 years of energy and time on this. It's not just the Brumbies and the Raiders but other individuals around the city that genuinely care about Canberra.

"This latest idea seems to be an idea on the run, a deflection, because they've decided it's too hard to build a stadium in the city.

"All the conversations we had had were about a 20,000 seat stadium in the city, now they're only talking about a 25,000 seat stadium.

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"A refurbishment at Bruce does not address the main problem and that's our members and fans having to sit out there in the freezing cold and the rain.

"We have always called for a roof on the stadium and I feel sorry for the rusted-on supporters who pay good money to watch rugby league and rugby union."

Furner added: "I have lost hope. I don't agree that a stadium in Civic would be dead space.

"Build something state of the art and you will get other events. At this stage, Canberra has no hope of getting anything else because the stadium at Bruce is 50 years old.

"When you compare it to the stadium being opened in Sydney, and every other capital city, it's disappointing we have a third-rate stadium. Really disappointing and deflating. We've been holding out hope for a long, long time.

"The feasibility study says the city is the ideal spot, so I'm at a loss to this one. Every city in the world is building infrastructure and facilities in the town ... our city needs that, it needs vibrancy."

The football codes fear the stadium project is at least another 10 years away, given Barr has said there will be limited movement until 2025 and the start-to-finish timeline is at least six years.

The salt in the wounds is seeing other stadiums pop up around the country, with fans flocking to Sydney and places like Townsville and Geelong building new venues while Hobart is seeking federal funding for its waterfront stadium plans.

"Any person from Canberra who goes to Sydney this weekend and goes to the rugby league on Friday or the Wallabies on Saturday will come back to Canberra and wonder why they would want to watch a game of football at a 45-year-old stadium," said Brumbies chief executive Phil Thomson.

"I think we'll see people voting with their feet and not wanting to go to that stadium. If they want to watch their team, they'll watch on TV or wait until they play in Sydney.

"There will be lots of Brumbies supporters travelling to Sydney to watch them play at the new stadium rather than wanting to go to Canberra Stadium."

Barr is set to meet with Australian Sports Commission chief executive Kieren Perkins within the next month to discuss the commission's hopes of redeveloping the AIS campus.

The hope is the ACT government, federal government and commission can reach an agreement to share costs, handover ownership rights to the stadium and the arena and then work together to build a sporting, residential and hospitality precinct at Bruce.

The idea was first floated 13 years ago when the government considered building a new rectangular stadium next to Canberra Stadium, but it has been on ice to focus on Civic.

The government has commissioned several reports into major sporting infrastructure since 2009.

The Canberra Stadium and Manuka Oval masterplan was floated in 2009 with options to modernise existing stadiums and precincts.

That shifted to an "urban strategy" to link the city to Lake Burley Griffin in 2013, which proposed a 30,000 seat-venue on the site of the Civic pool.

By 2015 the stadium was included in the City to the Lake masterplan, and in 2017 the government went to work on a stadium and arena precinct plan, which made a recommendation for a feasibility study for the Civic site.

The study was completed last year, and concluded a stadium in Civic was the preferred option even though some design compromises would need to be made and Parkes Way would have to move 12 metres.

But Barr this week kiboshed any lingering hope, saying it was almost impossible to build in Civic and pointing to the $140 million required to move Parkes Way.

Senator David Pocock is still keen to see the Civic option pursued, and so are some of his former Wallabies teammates.

"New stadium in Canberra? That's been on the cards for years hasn't it," asked Wallabies captain James Slipper.

"David Pocock's been pushing that pretty hard. I absolutely love playing at Canberra Stadium but to get a new stadium there closer to the city would be fantastic."

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