Look at Auckland FC building something at North Harbour Stadium. Would be a similar set up to the WS proposal without the 50,000 concert ability.
They will want to stay closer to central Auckland, re where they play games. I highly doubt AFC would have attracted the same crowds at NHS as they got last season at Mt Smart.
They have from memory a 4 year agreement at Go Media. They will just keep playing there, hoping something can eventually be worked out for this Western Springs project.
Not ideal training out at Albany when playing games in Penrose. But they made it work last season, and there is some reasonable training facilities in the NHS precinct. Foley/Mowbray might just chuck a few million at upgrading those as an interim short term fix. Share the cost with NZF re various national teams training there? Remembering the national body are getting a nice FIFA WC payout soon.
It does sound like the Warriors are very protective of their Mt Smart base, and not happy to have a soccer club share training grounds, gymnasiums etc etc. That may change one day. But with a $20M plus annual disbursement from the NRL, they are unlikely to need or be wooed over by Foley's financial clout.
Arg. I don't know the full details of Ponsonby's bid, but it sounds like we're going to get yet another stadium that tries to do too much and isn't good at any of it.
And we're going to have to pay for it.
Did you think Auckland was really going to go for a pre-funded popular and conservative project? We do pie in the sky bs that can be assessed twenty times over, is completely unsustainable immediately and in the future and is never built.
Or as Sir Humphrey (ask your parents or grandparents) once put it, years of fruitful work.
At least we get to see these musos fronting for rugby have to scramble to get their acts together and get funding. If AFC hadn’t put in a proposal they wouldn’t have done anything.
*Stop counting submissions like they are polls. This is for expert and particularly affected voices to be heard. It usually sways towards any negative campaign. It only really matters if the support is incredibly dire.
Drive through Mt Albert or West Lynn and tell me that the genius ACC people have'nt throughly F**ked it ...there not " pie in the sky " they're more " mum dressed me today " seriously , seriously dumb people armed with loaded degrees ...convinced of the brilliance of their own ideas
*Stop counting submissions like they are polls. This is for expert and particularly affected voices to be heard. It usually sways towards any negative campaign. It only really matters if the support is incredibly dire.
I am sure that Ali and his wife were aware of the logistical process before embarking on this project and there would have been no surprises. They would have been paying informed people very well. They always were the front runners.
So the line they are using for pulling out doesn’t wash.
I believe where they shot themselves in the foot was releasing their design of the stadium and fancy video. Immediately that got themselves offside with their actual football supporters. The vast majority could then visually see a stadium that wasn’t with the eye test any better than what they had (i.e. Three sides of stands and only two covered).
When the port complained about that then they said oh it’s just a mock at this stage, you will get a roof if you want to stay dry. That however directly went against making it suitable for concerts capacity wise and a dual purpose income stream.
Three to four years of bitching fans complaining probably would have done their head in and they always wanted the concert income.
In hindsight they probably should have never released their stadium video and plans in total.
It did them more harm than good and their paid advisers should have foreseen this.
Drive through Mt Albert or West Lynn and tell me that the genius ACC people have'nt throughly F**ked it ...there not " pie in the sky " they're more " mum dressed me today " seriously , seriously dumb people armed with loaded degrees ...convinced of the brilliance of their own ideas
Always nice when you can get a train to Newmarket in 12 minutes one way and New Lynn and Glen Eden the other, in a suburb of apartments and multimillion dollar homes, better than an automobile, not to have a train station that’s an open air sewer though. And one that is well lit and has wheelchair and push chair access and so on…especially when those trains are guna be much more frequent with the city rail loop…
Re the withdrawal of support for Western Springs I don't mind this as an outcome.
What I would like to see (my big picture hat on).
- Cricket at Western Springs, could be combined with a concert venue and if done well could mean Ponsonby Rugby could stay.
- Auckland FC continue to stay at Mt Smart Stadium for games for their first team - there is quite a bit of land there that Auckland FC could use for some more onsite stuff, offices or more hospo etc if needed.. however....
- lobby council for the space behind Waikaraka Park (it is already close to a helipad which might help... ) for a training venue - extra fields for use at Waikaraka Park - the space backs onto Onehunga Sports carpark/clubrooms so even a combined effort here could see the entire area upgraded - not a lot of residental nearby so scope for lights/noise etc. close to the motorway for the airport and close to Mt Smart for games.
Problem is it seems pretty clear The Warriors don't want Auckland FC based at Mt Smart. At least re sharing training facilities etc. They will yes tolerate them playing ALM games in Penrose.
Also somewhat ironically isn't Speedway moving to Waikaraka Park? Do they use the space around there for car parking when holding speedway events?
I watched a video of Foley walking around Bournemouth FC's new state of the art training facility. Get the impression he likes something that is 100% owned by the Foley Group. No sharing facilities annoyances. Hence why he and the other AFC owners were keen to get the Western Springs site, and fund it themselves. Total control of their own home. None of this renting a public land space, and having to share stuff nonsense.
Problem is it seems pretty clear The Warriors don't want Auckland FC based at Mt Smart. At least re sharing training facilities etc. They will yes tolerate them playing ALM games in Penrose.
Also somewhat ironically isn't Speedway moving to Waikaraka Park? Do they use the space around there for car parking when holding speedway events?
I watched a video of Foley walking around Bournemouth FC's new state of the art training facility. Get the impression he likes something that is 100% owned by the Foley Group. No sharing facilities annoyances. Hence why he and the other AFC owners were keen to get the Western Springs site, and fund it themselves. Total control of their own home. None of this renting a public land space, and having to share stuff nonsense.
Speedway other side - but yeah I don't think we need another stadium for the mens games but a 5k stadium/training ground would be great.
Seems like plenty of room just below Onehunga Sports current clubrooms, and a view to Mangere Mountain if you design it well.
Can’t see it. Think the players and staff are much happier hanging out in Takapuna and the north shore beaches and a short hop skip and a jump up the motorway to Albany to train.
Guess it depends to a degree on what Council have promised Speedway as land available at Waikaraka Park. Where are the thousands of fans going to park? After what has gone on with Western Springs, I doubt many Speedway administrators will be looking to do Ali Williams and Co any favours.
Having a cemetry neighbouring a speedway is amusing.
Can’t see it. Think the players and staff are much happier hanging out in Takapuna and the north shore beaches and a short hop skip and a jump up the motorway to Albany to train.
Yeah get that vibe as well. From some social media stuff players like Guillermo May, seem to enjoy the novelty of living near the Shore beaches. You are a long way from the playas in Rosario.
Guess it depends to a degree on what Council have promised Speedway as land available at Waikaraka Park. Where are the thousands of fans going to park? After what has gone on with Western Springs, I doubt many Speedway administrators will be looking to do Ali Williams and Co any favours.
Having a cemetry neighbouring a speedway is amusing.
As a former Onehunga Sports player, can I say that the whiff of rubbish dump you get in a southerly breeze on that ground would quickly become notorious if you tried to play serious games there
Ramming liberal dribble down your throat since 2009 This forum needs less angst and more Kate Bush threads
Not surprised they pulled out. As soon as the ACC decided not to decide and instead went for public imput i knew it was over. As expected rugby wheeled out their big guns. BJ Williams, Ponsonby rugby club legend said the park should not commercialised into private hands and instead be kept for all the public. Old rugby vs new football. There will always be only one winner. So instead of a free world class sport, entertainment, hospitality centre which are hugely successful and popular all round the world Auckland gets to pay out more public money. For what? An upgrade for the Ponsonby rugby club and an outdoor concert venue. Who will end up paying the bulk of the refit and all of the running costs?. The Auckland rate payers if course
Thirty-three per cent of individual submitters indicated a preference for the option to explore other ideas. Thirty per cent favoured the proposal to develop a Western Springs Bowl, while 21 per cent preferred the Auckland Arena proposal and 16 per cent preferred to keep things as they are.
I don’t believe the power of ponsonby rugby runs deep these days.
Just however really dumb PR from the owners. Bank roll a team that was desperately needed, sell 22,000 shirts, offer to build a stadium for free, but still can’t get your fans to vote for it.
Not surprised they pulled out. As soon as the ACC decided not to decide and instead went for public imput i knew it was over. As expected rugby wheeled out their big guns. BJ Williams, Ponsonby rugby club legend said the park should not commercialised into private hands and instead be kept for all the public. Old rugby vs new football. There will always be only one winner. So instead of a free world class sport, entertainment, hospitality centre which are hugely successful and popular all round the world Auckland gets to pay out more public money. For what? An upgrade for the Ponsonby rugby club and an outdoor concert venue. Who will end up paying the bulk of the refit and all of the running costs?. The Auckland rate payers if course
Western Springs was the same along with sharp stuff surfacing for years ...Doloras
As a former Onehunga Sports player, can I say that the whiff of rubbish dump you get in a southerly breeze on that ground would quickly become notorious if you tried to play serious games there
I don’t believe the power of ponsonby rugby runs deep these days.
Just however really dumb PR from the owners. Bank roll a team that was desperately needed, sell 22,000 shirts, offer to build a stadium for free, but still can’t get your fans to vote for it.
I agree with your comments re the power of Rugby clubs. In decades past most councils usually had "Rugby Heads' on the elected councils but in recent times that has reversed i.e. Wellington had two mayors recently that were active footballers and Hutt City had a Mayor, Ray Wallace, whose father was a Wellington Football Stalwart and Ray's sister played for NZ.
Given the massive numbers that play Football in Auckland I would imagine that it is no different there. In relation to Ponsonby Rugby, I recall seeing a documentary that Paddy Gower did a couple of years ago where he interviewed a lady who ran Ponsonby junior Rugby, and she stated that junior numbers had radically shrunk to the point where she was concerned if junior Rugby could survive.
Thirty-three per cent of individual submitters indicated a preference for the option to explore other ideas. Thirty per cent favoured the proposal to develop a Western Springs Bowl, while 21 per cent preferred the Auckland Arena proposal and 16 per cent preferred to keep things as they are.
I was part of that 33%. I felt neither option did justice to the potential possible at WS. Folley and co with their coin could have done something much better then what was shown in that video.
Supporter of the world's best football teams: Waikato..., Kingz FC, NZ Knights, The Nix, The Argyle & of course the All Whites
Thirty-three per cent of individual submitters indicated a preference for the option to explore other ideas. Thirty per cent favoured the proposal to develop a Western Springs Bowl, while 21 per cent preferred the Auckland Arena proposal and 16 per cent preferred to keep things as they are.
I was part of that 33%. I felt neither option did justice to the potential possible at WS. Folley and co with their coin could have done something much better then what was shown in that video.
I don’t believe the power of ponsonby rugby runs deep these days.
Just however really dumb PR from the owners. Bank roll a team that was desperately needed, sell 22,000 shirts, offer to build a stadium for free, but still can’t get your fans to vote for it.
It’s not a vote though. It’s thoroughly bad reporting on public consultation.
It doesn’t tell us if football clubs all over Auckland submitted, if the Port or others submitted on behalf of their members…
And it’s a qualitative measure. It only really matters if nobody is interested in options at all.
Poor journalism is part of poor outcomes and it’s not looking like getting any better.
No politician wants to lead on anything because there’s no votes in infrastructure, just years of inevitable cost overrun stories and nostalgia for the status quo from 40 years ago.
I imagine there’s a fair bit of anti-soccer feeling there tempered by the Ali Williams, Mowbray-Act and Foley-Trump and Westpoint connections. Can’t cry that those guys are wish washy soccer lefties! And Steven Adams the straight talking, hardworking, diy good guy mops up more outrage too.
Don’t know, something different, really shouldn’t have been an option at this stage.
You can see why things don’t get done.
Whatever the Geese are going to takeover, extort the construction company, poop everywhere, honk loudly and get them to build a goose holiday park instead of whatever…no to ducks, coots, pukeko, swans, shags and eels!
Thirty-three per cent of individual submitters indicated a preference for the option to explore other ideas. Thirty per cent favoured the proposal to develop a Western Springs Bowl, while 21 per cent preferred the Auckland Arena proposal and 16 per cent preferred to keep things as they are.
I was part of that 33%. I felt neither option did justice to the potential possible at WS. Folley and co with their coin could have done something much better then what was shown in that video.
What do you suggest?
See my earlier post for what I suggested.
AFC should be milking the cow out of Ponsonby rugby and concerts, something their submission was not doing.
Supporter of the world's best football teams: Waikato..., Kingz FC, NZ Knights, The Nix, The Argyle & of course the All Whites
The Blues contract with Eden park expires soon, heard they are talking to other venues including Go Media stadium about hosing games there. Eden park is wasy too big now for rugby but I can't see them leaving just yet - this might just be a tactic to get a discount
The Blues contract with Eden park expires soon, heard they are talking to other venues including Go Media stadium about hosing games there. Eden park is wasy too big now for rugby but I can't see them leaving just yet - this might just be a tactic to get a discount
Cant see the Warriors being happy about that wouldnt the Blues season go into the Warriors season. Dont think they are overly excited about AFC without the Blues turning up as well.
Think the Warriors main issue with AFC is wanting to retain all the training facilities at Mt Smart as rugby league specific. Not so fazed about AFC playing their A League games there (if they train at Albany), especially given the ALM is mostly a summer comp.
The Blues have their own designated training base in Epsom, so the Warriors may not care much if Super Rugby games get played at Mt Smart from 2026. As long as they don't have to change their NRL kick off times/dates or whatever, around the Blues.
Though I also remember reading something about the Wahs not liking Moana Pasika being at Mt Smart. Pasika since moving to North Harbour. So who knows.
The Warriors are a well established and successful club in their own right, presumably they want to only support proposals that are good outcomes for them? Off the top of my head that could only be a reduced rental but the reduction would have to be really big.
I was thinking more of a,timing factor,dosnt the Blues season run at the same time as the NRL is in full swing. Which will be extended if Warriors make the finals.
