Rally cry goes out for indoor-court expansion

PG ARENA has been doing reasonably well with basketball and netball over the years. PHOTO/FILE

Hawke's Bay desperately needs more indoor courts and the Pettigrew-Green Arena is the ideal venue to accommodate it, according to the arena general manager, Dan Rodden.

"There was always future plans to expand this place so they build this building to expand but what those expansions are haven't happened with the [Napier City] council yet," Rodden said, revealing land behind the rear carpark would provide the scope for that. "We don't know what our entitlements are but our sports are singing out for more courts," said the 30-year-old.

Rodden said the PG Arena users were asking for more courts while they made sure the larger events were catered for.

The junior development growth of basketball spearheads that demand although futsal, "the underdogs", are growing rapidly as a relatively new indoor sport in the country.

"When we were built 13 years ago futsal wasn't played here so it's come within that short life span," Rodden said.

Volleyball also uses the venue with some consistency now, especially in the secondary school sector.

"From a regular user point of view we're pretty chocker.

"If we could build more courts it would allow us to expand those opportunities."

PG Arena has been doing "reasonably well" with netball and basketball over the years so a more regular fixture would be welcome but it was open to the idea of hosting an international or an ANBL match.

While sport dictated terms in the hire of the marquee venue they accommodated non-sport users as well.

"We're flexible a little to guarantee our regular sports eight weeks per term so they deliver a lengthy comp for their community and their members.

"The multi-purpose [use] is working but the demand is there for more courts and I think we'll definitely see the use of them increase and the ability for us to attract more of those sports tournaments [age-group champs] into our region," he said.

The PG Arena is a valuable asset so any profits are reinvested in maintenance.

"We have a massive infrastructure and it costs a lot to run this facility so I guess we do our best to cover that cost to get by year after year," Rodden said, adding work was under way to put more coats of polish on the indoor-court floor.