Delay a ‘slap in the face’ for sports groups
OPINION: Canterbury, once a breeding ground for future Silver Ferns, faces a lost generation of netballers from the stalled metro sports facility.
Tuesday’s announcement, which saw the new Government end a deal with the preferred contractor after a $75 million budget blowout over the $300m venue, is another slap in the face for several long-suffering Canterbury sports organisations.
It is a further setback for Canterbury netball, the largest women’s participation sport in the region with 15,000 registered players, who have been crying out for a suitable indoor facility - even before the earthquakes.
Netball Mainland chief executive Brigit Hearn has endured a frustrating time trying to turn around the on-court struggles of the Tactix franchise, but that pales in comparison to the metro sports shambles.
Hearn has been an outspoken critic about the ongoing delays around the anchor project, going from a completion date of early 2016 to April 2021, if the current design is approved.
Canterbury sports teams visiting Invercargill’s impressive Stadium Southland have looked on with envy at their state-of-theart facility, which includes 11 community courts, four squash courts, a climbing wall and main showpiece court.
For the second largest city in the country to go this long without an adequate indoor facility is unacceptable.
The situation was so bleak, Hearn and Christchurch Netball Centre chair Chris Rodda investigated transitional options in 2015, contemplating using an old Foodstuffs distribution warehouse in Papanui as a shortterm netball centre until the facility was built.
Netball, basketball and volleyball are operating at capacity with their respective venues around the city, while competitive swimmers have been forced to train and compete outside the region due to the lack of a Olympic size 50m pool.
Hearn hit the nail on the head when she said the temporary AMI Stadium in Addington took less than 100 days to build, yet Canterbury netballers have been waiting ‘‘4015 days and counting’’.
Canterbury, who for so much of its netball history has had a reputation for producing Silver Ferns, risk losing many promising young athletes due to inadequate facilities in the city.
Playing premier matches late on a Tuesday night at the Bishopdale YMCA and running around the Hagley courts exposed to the elements on Saturdays has become the norm for many of the province’s best netballers.
Netballers are often skilled in multiple sports and have more choice than ever before. The growing appeal of rugby sevens, now an Olympic sport, triathlon, cycling and rowing, means it is becoming harder to keep them in the game, which is amplified when facilities aren’t up to scratch.
No multipurpose indoor venue also means Christchurch will continue to be bypassed for national age-group and New Zealand secondary school tournaments, impacting on potential spending in the city.
With Horncastle Arena heavily in demand following the earthquakes, Netball Mainland faces a major battle each year trying to book in home games for the Tactix.
They had envisaged using the metro sports facility’s proposed show court with 2500 retractable seats as an ideal venue for home matches, but that has gone on the backburner, like much else.
An increasing threat for Netball Mainland is a fear the metro sports facility could be scaled back to such a degree it won’t be suitable for organised competition.
That really would be the final straw for an organisation, like many, who put their trust in the anchor project and have been badly let down.
For the second largest city in the country to go this long without an adequate indoor facility is unacceptable.