Lancaster Park seats get snapped up
Thousands of chairs from Christchurch’s earthquake-damaged Lancaster Park are being snatched up by community groups.
Bids for the plastic seats at the stadium – which in its glory days was the home of the Crusaders and once seated fans of Bon Jovi, U2 and Tina Turner – have been rolling in.
About 21,000 of the stadium’s 30,000 seats had been claimed ahead of its planned deconstruction in December.
The Christchurch City Council approved deconstruction of the stadium earlier this year. The plan was to salvage or recycle as much material as possible, which would then be divvied out amongst groups who requested a piece of the park.
The dangerous Hadlee Stand was demolished shortly after the February 2011 earthquake and some of its seats were relocated to the Hagley Oval Pavilion.
‘‘Some fans might think it would be a great idea to have a collection of seats in the garden shed or in the garage somewhere, or in someone’s man cave,’’ said Darren Burden, general manager of venue management company Vbase.
More than 40 submissions from community and sporting groups had asked for salvaged parts of the old stadium, including rugby gear, roller doors, display cabinets, showers and toilets. Memorabilia, bar furniture, glassware, and gates were also up for grabs.
‘‘People have also put in requests for items of a more sentimental nature that they feel a special attachment to. We’re working through all the requests and hope to reply to everyone by the end of this month,’’ Burden said.
The seat salvage work would begin in August and everything else would be recovered over the following two to three months.
Deconstruction work is expected to take 12 to 14 months to complete. No plans for the future of the site have been made yet.