Sport Northland Brent Eastwood 'Sport Thought': McKay stadium sponsorship a big win

Sport Northland sponsorship and funding lead Colleen Atchison (left) stands with McKay managing director Lindsay Faithfull at the soon to be named McKay Stadium. Photo / File

As I think most people who love sport will realise, sponsorship is a critical component of providing people with the right events, facilities, activities and opportunities to become active.

I mentioned in this column late last year that quality and enduring corporate sponsors are few and far between, but that Sport Northland is fortunate to have a few in this category.

Top of that list is ASB, who have now been our leading sponsor since 1992, a phenomenal partnership.

And while they have re-signed with Sport Northland for another two years, the new agreement will see a full exit from their naming rights of Sport Northland's Kensington Stadium from the end of this month.

As promoted in the Northern Advocate a few weeks ago, Sport Northland is delighted to welcome local electrotechnology company McKay Ltd as the new naming rights sponsor of the stadium to replace ASB.

McKay Stadium will now be sponsored by the company, which was founded in Northland in 1936 and still has its head office in Whangarei.

They have expanded significantly over the last five years and are now a 500-plus people company, and it is therefore timely, and very important, for them to share this success with the community that gave them their start over 80 years ago.

With the stadium having previously been sponsored by ASB and Genesis Energy, McKay is the first truly local sponsor since the Northern Advocate naming rights to the stadium finished in 2004.

Both McKay and Sport Northland have deep roots in the area, so the historic significance of the sponsorship is certainly exciting for both organisations.

Both organisations are led by born and bred Northlanders, with McKay managing director Lindsay Faithfull and myself both growing up in the city and spending much of our early childhood running around in bare feet on Kensington Park on frosty Saturday mornings.

This was, of course, well before McKay Stadium was even thought of, let alone constructed!

So to now have the two organisations strike up this partnership will ensure that fees for local community groups to use the stadium can continue to be kept to a minimum, and that this in turn will encourage more groups to utilise the courts, something that contributes directly to Sport Northland's core purpose of "enriching lives through play, active recreation and sport".

It is also significant to have the 2019 Conbrio Northland Sports Awards as the first major event in the newly named McKay Stadium, as this is a flagship Sport Northland event and is a celebration of those Northlanders who have achieved on the national and international stage in 2019. The awards will be held on Friday April 30.

Under the new partnership McKay Stadium will also be the home of the McKay Lounges and include the tenants Kensington Fitness, Refuel Café, Educare Childcare Kensington Park, Northern Football Federation, Whangarei Physiotherapy and North Tec Sport and Recreation Campus.

Thanks to Lindsay and his team for what I fully expect to be a hugely beneficial partnership for both McKay and Sport Northland.