Architects unveil Bay's new $41m sport site

By JOHN COUSINS
Tauranga's $41 million sport and exhibition centre at Baypark will feature three international standard courts with premier-rated floors, air conditioning and acoustics.
Design details of the planned new focus for Western Bay indoor sport and trade shows were unveiled to a special meeting of the city council yesterday .
Councillors backed the plan in which architects Warren and Mahoney have swung the stadium 90 degrees to the west so that instead of running in a southerly direction along the side of the speedway pits it will protrude into the carpark and be visible to passing traffic.
Changing the footprint of the stadium will mean the council must seek a variation to the existing resource consent from an independent planning commissioner.
The design team has strived to ensure that the changes would be less than minor to maximise the chances that it not have to be publicly notified.
Council city services manager Ian McDonald said that with construction planned to begin on July 1 next year, a publicly-notified application had the potential to push out the starting date and "time is cost".
The other six courts will be standard community courts but also with sprung wooden floors.
Baypark's speedway pits will become the carpark for mid-week sport users although the pits also had the potential to take outdoor extensions of trade shows.
Project manager Peter Vause, of RDT Pacific, stressed that the three regional and international courts would be available for community sport.
The roof of the centre court would be high enough for international volleyball, with the two adjoining courts at least up to regional competition heights.
A press of a button and two massive banks of motorised retractable seats will lower into place, setting up the centre court for 3000 spectators.
Foot kiosks will feature on the wide two-level public concourse separating the stadium's standard and premier courts. Downstairs will largely be left open, with allowance for food kiosks, administration and meeting rooms.
The 1600 sq m of floor area upstairs was mostly capable of transforming into a very large function room or, with moveable walls, reducing to four smaller rooms.
With windows looking down onto all courts, it also had the potential of being hired out as corporate boxes.
Councillors insisted that the public concourse linking the new stadium with Baypark's 600-seat convention centre and kitchens should be covered in. The design assumed that food would be cooked in Baypark's kitchens or brought in.
Mr Vause said that whatever decisions were made to cut costs, it was vital that floor systems were not compromised.
Mayor Stuart Crosby said a critical part of reducing costs on ratepayers was the commercial side of the operation. "If we don't provide proper facilities, the commercial sector won't come."
The meeting was told that 98 per cent of revenue earned by Waitakere's stadium came from events.
Cr Bob Addison liked the configuration, saying it was a very good design. Keeping the premier courts separate had worked brilliantly at Dunedin's Edgar Centre. However, it would need excellent management to juggle use of the stadium to achieve the best returns on investment, he said.
Cr David Stewart said if it was not cost efficient, it would not be built. It was critical that the council got buy-in from Sports Bay of Plenty and the three big users - volleyball, netball and basketball.
Ratepayers are contributing $25 million to construction costs. It is set to open in December 2009.