Sir Ray Avery has admitted he underestimated the level of opposition to holding his charity concert at Eden Park.
The philanthropist is planning to hold a concert on Waitangi Day 2019 to raise the money for 2000 life pod baby incubators to be made and sent to developing counties.
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Sir Ray says it will be headlined by an original Live Aid performer who may pull out if Eden Park can't be used.
But nearby residents have voiced opposition to the concert due to concerns it will be noisy and could lead to more events being held at the stadium.
Sir Ray told The AM Show he didn't think so many people would be opposed to the stadium and had originally only planned to have 20 to 30 objecting.
"I honestly believed hand on heart that I could convince people it's a good thing to do, to save some children's lives why wouldn't you just put something aside for two or three hours," he said.
Resource consent for holding the concert is going to cost $750,000, nearly a quarter of the $4 million target for Sir Ray's fundraising drive.
He said residents should not be alarmed about his concert paving the way for others to use the venue as under the Resource Management Act any future events will still have to apply for the consent.
"You can't use it as a Trojan horse, it just technically doesn't work that way," he said.
The residents' opposition comes as others have begun questioning Sir Ray's claims about the life pods.
A Newsroom investigation found several people formerly associated with Sir Ray are concerned the life pods won't be ready in time.
Sir Ray said that would not be the case and he couldn't comment on the relationships mentioned in the article.
"A lot of those people, there are some legal things around in terms of why we separated from some of those people," he said.
"Because some people were billing us for work they didn't do and so we fired them and they may have their own view on what that was about."
Newshub.
