Auckland's general stadium policy has been bad for ages though. As you say, the city's essentially three or four separate areas. There's no one good stadium in Auckland.
Mt Smart is well overdue a much needed rebuild and upgrade, I'd choose it just because it's a genuine rectangular stadium. You'd have to do pre-match at Ellerslie as it's the nearest bars on the Southern Rail line, but that's manageable.
Eden Park was upgraded for the 2011 World Cup but even if its CEO is aggressively pursuing things, it's because the stadium is oversized for what its used for. Shame they didn't build a new stadium back in the later 2000's tbh.
Albany was never properly finished, and has now been butchered to make the baseball ground work there. The busways are very good and they go all the way to Albany now (or very soonish, making it pretty fast).
You couldn't do games at Kiwitea, the pitch & parking render it almost impossible and trying to upgrade that ground would involve rarking Sandringham's nimbys. The Trusts has got that god-awful running track around the outside.
A decent ground needs
- nearby pubs etc
- preferably on the train line to reduce car traffic
- capacity that means 10,000 people won't feel like an empty ground
And that, to me, is an upgraded Mount Smart.
But, being realistic, the new Christchurch Stadium is probably going to be the last big new stadium project in New Zealand this side of 2040 - and it's a rectangle, roofed to keep the noise in, 30,000 capacity. You'd love to start a new team in a big shiny new stadium like that aye, like the Wanderers in Parramatta.
Mt Smart is well overdue a much needed rebuild and upgrade, I'd choose it just because it's a genuine rectangular stadium. You'd have to do pre-match at Ellerslie as it's the nearest bars on the Southern Rail line, but that's manageable.
Eden Park was upgraded for the 2011 World Cup but even if its CEO is aggressively pursuing things, it's because the stadium is oversized for what its used for. Shame they didn't build a new stadium back in the later 2000's tbh.
Albany was never properly finished, and has now been butchered to make the baseball ground work there. The busways are very good and they go all the way to Albany now (or very soonish, making it pretty fast).
You couldn't do games at Kiwitea, the pitch & parking render it almost impossible and trying to upgrade that ground would involve rarking Sandringham's nimbys. The Trusts has got that god-awful running track around the outside.
A decent ground needs
- nearby pubs etc
- preferably on the train line to reduce car traffic
- capacity that means 10,000 people won't feel like an empty ground
And that, to me, is an upgraded Mount Smart.
But, being realistic, the new Christchurch Stadium is probably going to be the last big new stadium project in New Zealand this side of 2040 - and it's a rectangle, roofed to keep the noise in, 30,000 capacity. You'd love to start a new team in a big shiny new stadium like that aye, like the Wanderers in Parramatta.