Anxious wait over facility
Sport Canterbury could miss out on ‘‘hundreds of thousands of dollars’’ due to the latest delay in the construction of Christchurch’s metro sports facility.
Citing a $75 million budget blowout, the Government on Tuesday axed the preferred contractor - Leighs Cockram Joint Venture. Greater Christchurch Regeneration Minister Megan Woods asked Crown owned rebuild company O¯ ta¯ karo to finish designing the building, and to prepare a build-only contract by March 2018.
It has pushed the proposed completion date of the facility, which was originally meant to be open at the start of last year, out to the first quarter of 2021, frustrating many people, including Sport Canterbury chief executive Julyan Falloon. Falloon fears a Christchurch Earthquake Appeal Trust (CEAT) grant, acquired to fit out the organisation’s sports house at the facility, could become watered down by the time it’s built.
Sport Canterbury, which has spent about $60,000 designing its new headquarters, is a confirmed head tenant at the facility, and has been allocated 1000 square metres, plus storage and car parking.
They would lease their space from Christchurch City Council and fit out the sports house at their own expense.
Falloon is concerned CEAT will pull the pin on the grant because of the latest uncertainty surrounding the centre.
‘‘If I lose that funding, that doesn’t help. Our ability to fit the thing out is impacted, which means we have a footprint and we can agree on a lease rate with the council, but I can’t fit the thing out and we don’t have a workplace,’’ said Falloon, who would not reveal the exact figure of the grant.
While details of the meeting haven’t been clarified, Woods wants to meet with Falloon and tier one sports users of the metro, which include High Performance Sport NZ, Netball Mainland, Canterbury Basketball, Swimming Canterbury and West Coast, and underwater hockey.
‘‘Immediately you think ‘is underwater hockey a tier one sport?’ No, not from a participation perspective, but from a design perspective it is,’’ Falloon said.
‘‘Do they want input or do they want information sharing, because if they get 30 or 40 different sporting groups and they want input, it could unravel pretty quickly.
‘‘There are definite concerns... we don’t want a reducing in numbers of community courts.. that will impact participation and impact the ability of sports to grow. But having said that, a very extensive diving facility for very few divers would be something that would probably be challenged again.’’
Falloon raised the possibility of the review causing further delays to the metro sports centre, labelling it ‘‘disheartening and deflating’’.