Hockey: Carpark delay is good for centre

Tauranga Hockey Centre general manager Clyde du Toit, pictured here at the centre's opening with Jo Tisch. Photo/Ben Guild

Outgoing Tauranga Hockey Centre general manager Clyde du Toit believes postponing the development of the Blake Park cricket ground is in the best interests of the hockey centre.

The home ground of the Mount Maunganui Cricket Club was to be turned into a carpark to ease congestion around the sporting hub until a group of councillors, led by Steve Morris, worked to delay the work until 2019.

With a third turf planned for the site, it had widely been thought the cricket club's loss would have been the hockey centre's gain, but du Toit said that was not the case.

"It's actually benefited us because we were going to lose our grass fields and have to look into going somewhere else," he said.

"It was going to have a big impact. We most likely have lost two or three of our little grass fields, so we would only have had one which would have put huge pressure on us.

"It's a positive, but for me it's about working together with council. Council has been very good to us and we have a good relationship with give and take on both sides."

He said the trappings of a new facility, positive media coverage and the work of CoachForce and KiwiSport officers had helped significantly bolster junior playing numbers which were now starting to filter up through the grades.

An additional three teams had been entered in this season's Year 3-4 grade, while the Year 5-6 competition had grown hugely from 48 to 64 teams.

"Obviously that puts pressure on our facilities here, but we have other school satellite venues that we use on Saturday mornings.

"We're really grateful to Bethlehem College, Aquinas College, Otumoetai Intermediate, Otumoetai College, Bellvue School and Tauranga Boys' College to be able to use those facilities."

A half field practice turf and third full turf, to go alongside the beach turf, is scheduled for 2019 with a price tag around $1.3 million, but du Toit left the door open for future compromise.

"If anything, with our growth we might have to bring that forward. If we are growing at the same rate the pure numbers would mean we would have to look at that."