Canterbury United Move Grounds

Canterbury United Move Grounds

In a move reminiscent of many other footballing management disasters, Canterbury Utd have decided to move from English Park, the home of Christchurch football for over 100 years to QE2 Park.  www.mainlandfootball.co.nz

There may be more to this than meets the eye Vim. Keep your head down and look out for the return of fire from Eddie Cropley.

this made the main sports page in the press and if i remember correctly (cant be assed finding a link) it states that Can United has their offices at QE2, the NZFC and youth squads train there, and its cheaper.


it may entice other people to show up if marketed correctly eg: buy a match ticket and get free entry to the pools etc.


also, lets not forget english park was just the feild. at QE2 theres the pool, the gym, and indoor training facilities which *hopefully* will aid our boys through better training which will help them  beat the Jafas

They have always based their training at QE2. Sounds like they have had a major spat. mainland soccer need to back off trying to milk every one for what they are worth. I wonder what they were charging the Pride to play at English Park? And subs are getting ridiculous.

Silly descion btw what is the average nzfc crowd

It said 750-1000 in the Press this morn, but I reckon 300 would be a more accurate estimate for English Park.  Imagine that inside QE2.  It's gonna be fantastic. 

National league games used to be there and it was great. I have played there with a good size crowd and you still feel the atmosphere out on the pitch. The main stand feels like a sound shell type amplifier. Should work out OK as it is on the ring road as well. Pitch would need work though it is pretty shonky at the moment with all those heifers from Tech using it.

An outrage! English park is right up there with Park Island as an ideal NZ Football staduim.  In my opinion you could not get a ground better suited to NZFC.  As a player you can hear and feel the crowd right up close.  I know QEII is not overly large but you compare these boutique grounds mentioned above to playing at arena Manawatu or Waikato Staduim and they are miles ahead.  Its a step backward for Canterbury. 

NZFC absolutely must be played at ground with a 3000-6000 capacity. Anything bigger than that and it's like being the only person at the pub.

i don't blame them for wanting to save a buc.  it's this sort of decision that will keep the nzfc going.  mainland soccer need to look at their charging structure - especially now that they have no one to use the ground...

Very good point - what is the point of shafting your best customer?

Its not like Canty Utd don't have enough money.  $5 levy for every player in Canterbury, then $7 entry to the games, plus mega bucks from sponsors and pub charities. 

mate, everything's 5 minutes away in christchurch anyway!?  i must say thought hat i reckon english park is a great facility.  it is a pity that they couldn't stay there.

Yes everything is close, you'd say 30 minutes from one side to the other so its not the travel that bugs me.  In fact QE2 is heaps closer to me.  Its playing the the game from behind a running track 50 meters up in a 15000 seater compared to being one meter from the sideline.

Don't know why they didn't just bring it down to Bexley.

if English park had a training field for warm ups etc. i would be confident to say they would have stayed.

im hoping like mad they get temp seating at QE2 closer to the sideline...or it'll be very sad to be there.

Why can't the use the grounds at St Albans school for there warmups.

English Park was a great place with a great atmosphere, especially when it was full. I can't see it being the same at QEII stadium.

there have actually been some great games at QE2 (old National League local derbies, U17 World Cup) with great crowds. It is a very good facility and does have atmosphere with a big crowd (5000 plus). My biggest concern would be the surface at the moment is poor.

Apparently the surface in the All Whites vs Malaysia at QEII park was pretty much rock-solid.

Theres probably a better atmosphere at Bexley, Vim, with 30 fans 'cos of the clever way the New Brighton club have stategically placed the pitch. it's all a matter of perception really. The point is Cant Utd don't want to pay $1000 a game to play on a shonky pitch.

Having played on English Park in the final of the Ethic Tournament, I have to say that English Park is a good pitch.  Great proximity to the crowd and good sort of 'basin' atmosphere. 

if they go broke through playing at English park then 100% of chch will miss out.


hopefully people have learnt their lesson now

They are never going to go broke.  All players in the region pay for them whether they like it or not.  VimFuego2007-06-16 18:57:25

The board of Cant Utd have an obligation to run the franchise on a sound financial footing. If they can reduce there costs by $500 - $700 per game (money that they could possibly invest in players) and provide a more competitive team then I for one fully understand this call. Mainland soccer do not run Cant. Utd and English Park was not refurbished for Canty Utd but football in general. And the surface is poor if you ask any half decent player.

Plenty of times you've seen games in the Premier League and NRL where the ground is all cut up and you don't see them crying about it and moving. 

playing at QE2 wont reduce crowds...so if they are still bringing in the same income while paying out less thats good.

also, in order to cover the increased ground costs if they stayed at EP they'd have to put up ticket prices, thus lowering the crowds (simple supply & demand economics)

for some reason i highly doubt that Can U makes a healthy profit, and if they can reduce their fixed costs then all the better for the franchise which in turn is good for the region

I agree with you gings. I actually don't see a hell of a lot of difference in the 2 facilities, probably lean more towards QE2. The statement I made earlier that Mainland Football don't run Cant Utd is actually not an excuse but a fact, so the strength of that statement is irrelevant, but I agree with Vim that it is disappointing to see two Footballing bodies in the same area at loggerheads.
It will be interesting to see if Mainland are willing to collect the levy on behalf of Cant Utd and whether they pass it on or keep it to make up for the short fall in funding now that they won't be hiring English Park to Cant Utd.
As for the quality of the pitch, next time your in Auckland go down to Kiwitea street and take a walk on the Auckland City/Central Utd pitch and you'll know what I'm talking about. The only ground that comes close in ChCh is the QE2 no. 2 pitch of a few years ago.

All sorted - see below, phew.

13 July 2007

Canterbury United with the assistance of the Mainland Foundation are able to stay at English Park Mainland Football and Canterbury United are delighted to announce they have signed an agreement that ensures the Canterbury United Dragons will play the 2007/2008 NZFC fixtures at English Park full article...

What an embarassing way to run the sport.  Only way Canty got their way was going public to get people riled up and make Mainland back down.  Just poor form all round don't you think? 

business isnt always fair...

If only Waikato FC could get some financial support to continue playing at the Waikato Stadium. $5000 plus GST per game doesn't work when you get 400 to a game. In three seasons of the NZFC they only made a profit on the gate that covered ground hireage twice and that was the last two home games of the inaugural season when they made the playoffs and finished 3rd.

Kiwi Canary, excuse my ignorance (dont really know Waikato/Hamilton too well) but surely there is a 'stadium' a bit smaller than Waikato Stadium that would be good enough...?

how on earth do they stay afloat?gings2007-09-03 22:21:52

    
gings2007-09-03 22:21:28

Hamilton is poorly equipped for football when it comes to having suitable facilities of NZFC standard. Porritt Stadium is a running track inside a huge bowl with a steep hill on the opposite side and athletics have first call on it...and of course they do there stuff in summer when the football is on so there are scheduling issues for a start. The changing rooms are woeful and need to be knocked down and rebuilt from scratch. there is potential there for sure but whilst athletics are there nothing will happen. The stand holds probably 250 to 300 tops and it is situated at the finish line of the 100 metres track, meaning it isn't centrally located. It can't cater for corporates unless you whack up a tent which is quite lame if you are trying to project a professional image to the people who are injecting sponsorship dollars into it. The pitch isn't too bad if there are no discus or shot put holes to contend with and there are underground sprinklers that need to have dirt put over them so you don't get players injuring themselves on the sprinklers.

dang...that makes me even more grateful for English park...and QE2