Sporting spotlight on city’s stadiums
It’s been all hands on turf as Hamilton prepares for a sporting bonanza weekend.
The Black Caps are in town for the opening test against the West Indies with the first ball scheduled to be bowled at 11am today at Seddon Park.
It’s not just Seddon Park that’s been getting a spruce-up, but also FMG Stadium Waikato, which will host the Māori All Blacks against Moana Pasifika on Saturday night.
Hamilton City Council’s turf manager Karl Johnson and his 10 strong team have been kept busy getting both venues up to the worldclass quality that Johnson is well known for.
‘‘We are going reasonably well. We’ve had a few hard days with the rain in Hamilton over the last week, but we are still rocking on and we have a recipe for our pitch preparation. So we are pretty much on track,’’ Johnson said.
Preparations for Johnson will finish with the coin toss today, then the pitch will be under the umpires directive.
‘‘The weather is always the biggest challenge with what we do, and we do have a recipe for our pitch preparation. But we have had quite a bit of rain in the past seven days, it keeps us on our toes.’’
The Māori All Blacks against Moana Pasifika was a late addition to the calendar due to the covid interrupted season.
‘‘FMG Stadium had the new turf system installed a year ago, and it’s performing amazingly and really looking a picture.
‘‘We’ve got a fantastic team, we’ve got good operators, and we’ve got plans in place.
‘‘Obviously the Māori All Black game came to us quite late, so we had to make sure we had enough staff to produce world-class facilities for our customers and clients.’’
Hamilton Central Business Association general manager, Vanessa Williams, said the sport filled weekend was an added bonus for the city’s retail and hospitality sector.
There is still international cricket to come with the Black Caps back in Hamilton for a T20 match against Pakistan on December 20 and on March 28 they host Bangladesh for a T20.