Campaigners against Dunedin’s controversial council-backed stadium have to pay $9,740 legal costs to the Dunedin city council.

Having earlier dismissed an application for judicial review by the Stop the Stadium group, High Court Justice Lester Chisholm didn’t buy the group’s argument they should not pay costs because the case was of public interest and great significance to Dunedinites.

Justice Chisholm said there was no justification for departing from the general principle that the party who failed should pay costs to the party who succeeded.

Any large construction project launched in New Zealand these days will attract criticism from those who can only see the negative, but the head of Dunedin stadium sponsor Forsyth Barr says he pays little attention to the doubters.

Forsyth Barr chairman Eion Edgar says the criticisms thrown into the path of the stadium are the same seen any time a new project as big as the new stadium is planned, but that they are usually forgotten after completion.

The name is on the door at Dunedin’s Forsyth Barr Stadium, with the launch of a new logo and branding today. Now all they have to do is build that door, along with the rest of the stadium.

The Forsyth Barr Stadium at University Plaza secured the investment banker as its naming rights partner in January, with the University of Otago also lending its name to the stadium plaza in recognition of its presence in the development.

The latest legal bid to tackle Dunedin’s Forsyth Barr Stadium has been fended aside by the High Court, with the Queenstown bankrupt who brought the action now liable for thousands of dollars in legal costs.

Completion of the stadium was described by Rugby New Zealand 2011 chief executive Martin Snedden yesterday as one of the “major challenges” facing the tournament, with funding from the Otago Regional Council (ORC) an essential part of that task.

If you can swing a hammer or operate heavy machinery you might be needed down south.

With the last legal barrier kicked into touch, construction of Dunedin’s new $200 million stadium will begin in a matter of weeks, with more than 500 workers required for 2 years to get in done in time for the Rugby World Cup.

The final hold-up was overcome this morning, when community action group Stop The Stadium’s application for a judicial review was dismissed by Justice Lester Chisholm in the Christchurch High Court.