'Hundreds of millions': Sports minister weighs in on stadium roof debate

The comments come after the ACT Brumbies returned home from Dunedin having played in the city's state-of-the-art, fully enclosed stadium.

The experience saw players and staff declare Canberra's new venue must have a roof. However, Berry has poured cold water on the idea.

The Deputy Chief Minister questioned whether the government can justify the additional cost of a roof and declared that ACT's sports fans enjoy braving the elements to watch the Brumbies and Raiders in action.

"Canberrans are pretty tough and people who come and watch sport more generally in the ACT are pretty tough," Berry said.

"Part of the memories the stadium brings for Canberrans in particular is the weather. We can experience 40-degree days when we're watching the Brumbies or Raiders play and we can experience minus 10-degree days when we're watching them play.

"I get that [a roof] will make a difference as far as the comfort of players and spectators alike, but it would add hundreds of millions of dollars to the cost of building a stadium so we need to take that into consideration as well."

The stadium is set to become a key issue in the lead up to this year's ACT election after Chief Minister Andrew Barr announced a seventh feasibility study into the long-running saga last month.

The NSW Rugby League training grounds at Bruce have been identified as the new preferred location for the venue.

The need to replace the current stadium was highlighted on Saturday afternoon after a foul stench wafted through the dressing rooms during the Raiders' victory over the Wests Tigers.

The Brumbies and Raiders have long campaigned for the new stadium to have a roof, with both clubs revealing crowds plummet once dark clouds start to hover over the city.

Stephen Larkham reiterated his view on Monday afternoon, declaring fan experience should be a priority when designing the new stadium.

"The cold, the weather, the wind, the rain, there's many reasons why a covered stadium would work in Canberra," he said. "You get better rugby as well. The ball is not slippery, it's not getting blown around and you're seeing that from the games that have been played at Forsyth Barr this year.

"There's been lots of long passages, which is a little bit more exciting to watch rather than the stop-start nature of some games when it's wet or windy."

Berry's comments come despite Chief Minister Andrew Barr's previous vision to replicate Forsyth Barr Stadium in Canberra.

The ACT leader travelled to Dunedin to examine the venue's design and later outlined his blueprint for a stadium with a clear polymer roof.

Despite previously supporting a covered stadium, Barr took the idea off the table last year.

Forsyth Barr Stadium was built for $150 million in 2011. Berry claimed the cost of building stadiums with roofs has skyrocketed in the past decade.

"After the NFL games in America I was looking at some of their stadiums over there," she said. "Some of them are covered and some of them aren't and they have people going in and sweeping off the snow from the chairs.

"We don't want to see that in the ACT of course, but it is an incredible expense, significantly more to put a roof on a stadium now than it would have been 10 years ago.

"It's something we would need to consider in a future design but looking at those stadiums in the NFL in America, billions of dollars, billions upon billions of dollars. While we're the nation's capital, we're still pretty small and that would be a big ask for our community to pay that kind of money.

"I still think we can build a beautiful stadium here in the ACT that would meet the needs of our spectators, but importantly the sports people and more broadly other events that might be held there."