Te Puke digs deep for grandstand
Community rallies together to put seats under bums at Atuaroa Ave venue
Possibly one of Te Puke’s biggest ever communitydriven projects reached a new milestone last week. Late in 2017, Te Puke Sports and Recreation Club bought 350 seats from Christchurch’s former Lancaster Park stadium for use in the new grandstand at the club’s Atuaroa Ave ground.
The seats were shipped to the Port of Tauranga and were individually “sold” in a sponsorship fundraiser to start the grandstand project.
They have been in storage ever since, but last week saw the first indications that they will soon be in place, creating a covered stand at Murray Salt Stadium.
Project co-ordinator Rick Hannay said since the seats arrived, fundraising to create the grandstand has taken priority.
The cost of the grandstand is well above what was first anticipated.
“It has turned out to be a project in excess of $700,000 — a significantly greater cost than we initially anticipated,” Hannay said.
“It’s a very big project. I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say it’s Te Puke’s second biggest community driven project after the building of the War Memorial Hall.”
When $100,000 was secured towards the end of 2018 — $60,000 from Te Puke Community Board topped up with $40,000 from Western Bay of Plenty District Council — Rick said it was “the making of the project”.
”One of the very good aspects of the whole project is they way in which it has turned out to be a community effort and there’s got to be acknowledgement that the Te Puke Community Board and Western Bay of Plenty District Council have been just outstanding supporters of the project.”
Rick also singled out three of the Western Bay District councillors who were sitting at the time the project was first suggested — Kevin Marsh,
John Scrimgeour and Grant Dally.
But there has also been support from many other sources, with the club itself raising $60,000.
“Where we’ve had more success is with the large funders — TECT, the Lotteries Board and New Zealand Community Trust — they have really supported us extremely strongly.”
The commercial sector has also put its weight behind the project.
“What has been particularly gratifyingly is that we actually sought financial support from a number of businesses that do business in our local area — the likes of Seeka, Rabobank, Pukepine, Growsafe
Chemicals and First Mortgage Trust have all come to the party with substantial contributions. In terms of coming alongside the project in a practical sense, we’ve had Arnold and Johnson and Stratum Consultants both involved in project development.
“We’ve been lucky to have that kind of support. That has been absolutely outstanding and all the participants have seen that Te Puke Sports is developing what will be a community facility. We have a long history of providing the public with access to facilities, grounds, etc, and it’s never been a charge against community organisations.
“We’ve had outstanding community support — schools have come in behind us as have the fire brigade and MPS.”
The town hasn’t had a facility with a covered stand for many years.
“In Te Puke we had our own grandstand at Jamieson Oval that was demolished and never replaced and now, in the triangle between Te Maunga, Whakata¯ne and Rotorua, there is nowhere with a covered grandstand for major events. So there’s some pretty strong drivers as to why Te Puke wants this facility.”
With more than $600,000 in the bank, Rick says it was time to start the project, and he is confident the balance will be found.
He anticipates the grandstand will be in place by the end of October.
“Then in November there will be an official opening organised where we will bring all funders and supporters in to a function at the club and the guest speaker will be former All Blacks captain Ian Kirkpatrick.”
In February, Hannay hopes the club can host a game featuring either the Chiefs or Bay of Plenty Steamers to celebrate the new stand.
It has turned out to be a project in excess of $700,000 — a significantly greater cost than we initially anticipated. Project co-ordinator Rick Hannay