McLean Park will accommodate even more supporters

Covered grandstand seating at Napier's McLean Park will climb to more than 10,000 with revised plans for a new stand that planners hope will be built by early next year.
The re-think adds 700 seats to the new Graeme Lowe Stand, replacing the McKenzie Stand on the south-eastern side of the park, extending around a bend towards the Centennial Stand at the south-western end.
The new stand will provide 4971 seats, including a special feature of 120 positions for spectators in wheelchairs, and just over 800 corporate lounge and corporate box patrons. The McKenzie Stand, first built in 1921 and rebuilt after two fires, in the 1940s and 1950s, holds 1134 people.
The 20-year-old Harris Stand, built after a fire destroyed the previous Harris Stand in 1984, accommodates 3704, the Chapman Pavilion, opened on the day of Hawke's Bay's rugby win over the 1993 British Lions, holds 620, and the Centennial Stand, now more than 40 years old, holds 787.
Napier City Council sports grounds manager Jude Rawcliffe says the Centennial Stand will ultimately provide another 122 seats, taking the ground's covered seating capacity to 10,204.
The redevelopment remains dependant on fundraising, but the sale of corporate boxes, the input of former meat industry giant Mr Lowe and other backers has seen the McLean Park Regional Trust and Fundraising Committee well on the way to a target of $7.4 million.
The trust also needs to find a suitable timeframe in which the stand can be built with minimal disruption to events, which over the next few months include a one-day cricket international between New Zealand and the West Indies (March 1), a five-day test between the same countries (March 25-29) and the Hawke's Bay Magpies' first season in the expanded NPC Air New Zealand Cup rugby competition, which opens with a Friday night game against Canterbury on July 28.
The trust is now examining four tenders for upgrading floodlighting which it hopes will be in place for the rugby match.
The tenders closed last week and aim to more-than-double the strength to 1500 lux, as well as expanding the spread across the arena.
Committee chairman Ross Bramwell said the most significant change in revising plans - increasing the seating capacity by 700 from that originally unveiled last year - was creating entry to the stand from the rear.
Compared with the earlier plan, proposing entry to the stand from the front, it minimises foot-traffic disruption for seated spectators, and improves ground security.