Tasmania's Labor leader, who faces an uphill battle to become premier from opposition, could throw her support behind a new Hobart stadium if the state's AFL team proves itself.
Rebecca White has pledged to try to renegotiate the island state's contract for an AFL club if elected at the March 23 poll.
The AFL granted Tasmania the league's 19th licence in May, contingent on a new 23,000-seat stadium at Macquarie Point in Hobart estimated to cost $715 million.
Ms White maintains support for a team but says taxpayer dollars should not be spent on the stadium amid health, housing, education and cost-of-living problems.
The AFL has said it has no plans to renegotiate the deal, signed by the Liberals who have been in power since 2014.
Under the contract, a team, slated to play in 2028, would use existing Blundstone Arena and University of Tasmania Stadium grounds in their first year.
"I'm going to be asking (the AFL) why we need a taxpayer funded stadium," Ms White told a leaders debate on Tuesday.
"I would have thought … (first) prove a team works, demonstrate you've got the crowd numbers.
"If the team is as successful as everyone expects it to be, then let's as a community agree we should build infrastructure to support it.
"Right now we've got two great grounds the AFL have already said they support teams playing on, let's use them first."
Liberal Premier Jeremy Rockliff has pledged to cap the state's stadium spend at $375 million, with private investment to be sought for any cost overruns.
He denies the promise breaches the contract, which contains a stipulation that the state is responsible for any funding blowouts.
The federal Labor government is contributing $240 million to the project, the AFL $15 million, with $85 million proposed to come from borrowings or leases.
Mr Rockliff described Ms White's position "clear as mud", saying negotiations couldn't be undone.
The stadium project must be voted through both houses of parliament to gain approval.
According to opinion polls, including a uComms survey of 1174 voters released on Tuesday, the Liberals will win more seats than Labor but not enough to form majority government.
The uComms poll had Liberal support at 37 per cent followed by Labor (23), the Greens (14), independents (13), Jacqui Lambie Network (nine) and others (five).
Mr Rockliff and Ms White both said they were prepared to govern in minority but reiterated they wouldn't "do deals" with crossbench MPs or trade policies.
Mr Rockliff called on independents to respect the party that wins the most seats.
The debate, hosted by the Property Council of Australia and Tasmanian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, was briefly interrupted by anti-native forest logging protesters.
