Some facts on Eden Park https://edenpark.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/fact-sheet_updated.pdf
The government put $190m into Eden Park for the 2011 World Cup and beyond. It ain't going to rip it down 15 years later.
NHS is surrounded by 6 six community fields. If you sell that land to commercial interests to fund something equivalent more central, you lose those 6 community fields as well. (Still can't believe the stand at North Harbour was chopped up for a flaky baseball proposal that was never going to stand up)
The government put $190m into Eden Park for the 2011 World Cup and beyond. It ain't going to rip it down 15 years later.
NHS is surrounded by 6 six community fields. If you sell that land to commercial interests to fund something equivalent more central, you lose those 6 community fields as well. (Still can't believe the stand at North Harbour was chopped up for a flaky baseball proposal that was never going to stand up)
Are Council prepared to pay the $6.3M grant Eden Park Trust want each year to maintain the park (basically annual capital works/depreciation cost)? Is the land EP sits on better suited to high density housing in a city with a housing problem that is only getting worse? Could a private consortium fully fund construction of a new waterfront National stadium (maybe by getting land EP sits on for free to develop housing), and then run it profitably enough so that as it aged all ongoing future capital works were self funded? Certainly a Waterfront stadium with less noise restrictions etc would stage more events than EP, which is limited to 6 concerts per year from starters.
But EP Trust have their own proposal to reinvent EP as a proper national stadium, and seemingly make it a better atmosphere for games where the ground is far from full. ‘Eden Park 2.0’ vision.
Problem with this plan who funds the hundreds of millions required to do this huge EP upgrade. Also will Ms H Clark have a problem with thousands of UFC fans wandering her leafy street.
I guess Council & all it's consultants will get to decide. Big, big decision for the city of cars.
https://www.coliseum-online.com/ambitious-eden-park-2-0-vision-disclosed/
While they have not put a price tag on the vision – it would be easily hundreds of millions of dollars – the Eden Park Trust Chair Doug McKay estimates it would be about 40 percent of the cost of starting from scratch at a greenfield location and avoids engineering and environmental issues likely to affect other areas, including the Auckland waterfront.
The Trust has released a promotional video and images of the Eden Park vision – “Eden Park will be part of our future – it’s always been part of our home. It’s our future covered.”
Maintained McKay, “People love coming here – it’s been the place of memories for decades for New Zealanders. We need a 60,000-capacity stadium – Eden Park is it. Auckland has to be the home of that stadium.”
He and stadium bosses say the Eden Park – current capacity 50,000 -is the logical location for the new-look stadium to rise over the next 10-20 years.
They envisage a facility attracting all manner of sporting events beyond rugby, cricket, league, and football – from moto-cross to boxing and Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), as well as concert and community events. By curtaining off upper levels – “club mode” -the ground could also be transformed for slightly smaller fixtures, such as the National Provincial Championship (NPC) rugby games.
The new-look Eden Park would replace a “mismatched bag of bones” – the existing patchwork design in which no two of the four grandstands are the same.
McKay says the revamp is envisaged in four stages:
- New, bigger, West and East stands, with designs similar to the South Stand that was completed for the 2011 men’s Rugby World Cup;
- A completely new North Stand, designed in line with the South Stand and the two new East and West stands;
- A retractable roof, extending between the East and West stands, allowing all-weather events such as one-day and T20 cricket matches – and avoiding messy and wet concerts and other events; and
- A grand pedestrian promenade – like the one leading to the 34,500-capacity Sky Stadium in Wellington, New Zealand – linking the Kingsland train station with a new entrance to the park. The promenade would be built over the busy Sandringham Road and give pedestrians unencumbered access.
Park bosses cite a number of other advantages.
The park’s location is already at the center of a major revamp of Auckland’s public transport infrastructure – the City Rail Link connects the Western and Eastern train lines and would deliver a big boost in passengers to the Kingsland Station directly from the CBD. And if the Labour Government gets its way, a new light-rail system would travel directly through the Eden Park neighborhood, to and from the airport and the City.
By building on the current footprint, the Park estimates it could save 137,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions, compared with the construction of an entirely new facility.
McKay believes decisions on a future big-capacity stadium need to be made before further, massive ratepayer investment is placed in aging assets at the Council-owned stadiums such as the 40,000-capacity Mount Smart Stadium in Auckland, the 30,000-capacity Western Springs Stadium and Park in Auckland and the 25,000-capacity North Harbour Stadium also in Auckland.
Put in McKay, “The Government, Council, parks, and codes all need to align on a stadium strategy for New Zealand and Auckland. And stadiums in Auckland should be all quarantined into one organization – at the moment, they all march to a different tune.”
McKay believes decisions on a future big-capacity stadium need to be made before further, massive ratepayer investment is placed in aging assets at the Council-owned stadiums such as the 40,000-capacity Mount Smart Stadium in Auckland, the 30,000-capacity Western Springs Stadium and Park in Auckland and the 25,000-capacity North Harbour Stadium also in Auckland.
Put in McKay, “The Government, Council, parks, and codes all need to align on a stadium strategy for New Zealand and Auckland. And stadiums in Auckland should be all quarantined into one organization – at the moment, they all march to a different tune.”