Auckland Stadium Dilemma?

[Andy Mellon]

Originally Posted by crabs

I understand your concerns that this is a huge amount of money, but as a regular patron of Eden Park I can't wait to see the back of that stadium. I also can't understand investing $300 million into it when there are so many things it can't host because of it's location.

Hmmm. Looking at those photos, Eden Park's even more crammed in the residential area than I thought. Looks in a lot better condition than the Basin Reserve. I just wish the government would spend even 10% of what they're proposing to spend in Auckland on doing the Basin up - the stands just look awful. The home of Kiwi cricket deserves better IMO.

When is this new stadium supposed to be finished by? 2011 for the RWC final? Well, unless they do a Millennium Dome job or Wembley Stadium on it, it should be finished by then at least

Sometimes with Auckland, I get the feeling they should flatten the place and start again

[crabs]

Originally Posted by Andy Mellon

Sometimes with Auckland, I get the feeling they should flatten the place and start again

As a born and bred Aucklander, I can say your not far from the truth there. Alot of the mistakes were made back in the 50s, 60s and 70s and was just a lack for planning and forsight. Auckland has the potential to rival cities like Sydney and Toronto.....however, this is for another forum on another day.

I agree with you on the basin....probably my favourite Cricket ground in the country.

And yes, the stadium has to be finished by 2011......that is a big worry. I can just see it now, NZ hosts the Rugby World Cup and the final held at Stadium Australia.

[Andy Mellon]

Originally Posted by crabs

And yes, the stadium has to be finished by 2011......that is a big worry. I can just see it now, NZ hosts the Rugby World Cup and the final held at Stadium Australia.

Yes - quite. Its a big risk to be taking when their national reputation stands on the line. If New Zealand gets the Rugby World Cup wrong; who will trust them to host such a big event on their own again? Any future tournaments to be played here will end up with a semi-final at Jade and the final in Sydney.

Whatever stadium ends up getting built, I just hope that it gets finished in time.

[Django]

I do not see the point of adding another sports stadium to the existing ones here in Auckland. I still cannot understand what is the the problem with Eden Park, which has a rich history and would be an ideal place to hold the world cup final in 2011.

[vvvrulz]

They're wasting so much time though with these endless polls and views on what to do. Lets just decide and build the thing already !

[Mr Kiwi]

Sorry only coming into this thing late so have read the whole thing and am now giving random comments on the conversation out of completely out of context (ironically, I've been up in Auckland working on proposals for the new indoor sports arena in Wellington - don't ask):

I'm sceptical of the whole waterfront stadium idea - mainly because there's still so many unknowns, so far the media reports have neglected to mention that the construction costs quoted exclude the cost of moving the port AND there has only been the most preliminary of preliminary studies made of the geotech issues of building a bridge/wharf into the harbour to support a large stadium (and 60,000 people).

Unfortunately I'm skeptical of the alternatives as well, Eden Park is hemmed in, both physically and by residential zoning laws, and has major traffic issues (the waterfront site is about two minutes from Britomart, which as somebody said - nobody uses). North Harbour maybe, there's also an alternative proposal in the Manukau harbour but they obviously don't have a very good PR company . . .

I agree with whoever it was who said it will only end up being used (full) for two All Blacks games a year and the odd concert. They always say with these things that it will generate XXX million dollars for the region - how much money does the port generate for the region? And do we really want to build a stadium over the top of it?

Its going to go ahead - for political reasons if nothing else. I hope they get it finished in time (not likely) and do a proper job (also - not likely). I still feel the Wellington Stadium missed a trick in not going 'the full monty' and including a hotel, proper conference venue, 'high performance' indoor training facilities, olympic size pool etc. Don't get me wrong - I think the Cake Tin is a good venue, but with more foresight and deeper pockets it could have been an excellent one.

Now, dual purpose grounds: the Cake Tin is a perfect case example here. The last few seasons this (permanant) pitch has been run all over by international sevens players at the start of February and still produced 600+ run cricket games immeadiately before and after, one year there was a combination of torrential rain and a David Bowie concert thrown in just to keep the groundsman on his toes. Unfortunately other dual purpose grounds around the country fail to get cricket right consistently, Jade gets high scores more because it's the same size as the average primary school quad than because the drop-in pitch is any good (yes, I'm aware that theres more to a good game than a high score).

ummm . . . rambling, I'll try to sum up with some quick points: even specialist Cricket grounds haven't brought good pitches (eg Hamilton); cricket is no longer played at Carisbrook because the NZRFU muscled Otago Cricket out of ownership or hosting rights or something, going along with this NZRFU deliberately schedules Super 14 games at major dual purpose venues at the same time as cricket games knowing the venues will take the event with the higher gate, even the hallowed turf of the basin is used for Aussie Rules and club rugby during the winter . . .

phew! that'll do for know - see you all in another month . . .

[crabs]

It looks like it's going to go ahead, hooray the end of the baseball diamond Eden Park! Apparently Test Cricket will more than likely be moved to Western Springs....any idea what that is like as a Cricket venue?