Tauranga City Council have decided to jointly fund an assessment into whether the region needs a multi-purpose stadium facility.

The assessment, which was agreed to by council's Economic Development and Investment Committee will see council form a partnership with regional stakeholders including Priority One, Sport NZ, Western Bay of Plenty District Council and Bay of Plenty Regional Council to undertake the work.

The assessment will be jointly funded by all members of the partnership.

Councillor Max Mason says as a region, 'we need to make an informed decision as to whether there is a genuine requirement for a multi-purpose stadium in the Western Bay of Plenty”.

'We recognise there is a strong public interest in this topic and we have made a decision to investigate this more closely. This first part of the process is to objectively assess whether a real need for stadium exists.”

Priority One will co-ordinate the project governance and project working groups that will be established to progress the assessment and report back to the Economic Development and Investment Committee.

Priority One Chief Executive, Nigel Tutt says it's important to understand if 'we can better meet the needs of our growing region”.

'It's important for growing regions to have better amenities and seeing councils and Sport NZ work together on this assessment is a great first step.”