Hockey shares success around

The economic benefits of this week's four nations hockey tournament in Whangarei can already be seen with the tournament's books hitting the black at the halfway stage.

Hockey New Zealand president Bill Shepherd said while crowd numbers were not great on opening night, Thursday's game proved Northlanders were keen hockey supporters.

"I know from a financial side we're in positive territory now," said Mr Shepherd, who is also the chairman of Hockey Northland's board. "[And], with the weather looking pretty good for the weekend we're expecting there will be good showing [of supporters]."

Mr Shepherd said there had been an estimated $200,000 benefit to local businesses. "It's a conservative one [estimated benefit]," he added. "It's not only the sporting benefit, but the community as well especially in these tougher economic times.

"One of the things we've been priding ourselves on in the Northland perspective is that we've been able to get test matches and tournaments up here ... there's a lot of business that goes with it."

Originally, the four nations tournament nearly ended up in North Harbour and Auckland, but, after officials there turned down the running of it, due to the potential strains on local hockey, Northland picked it up.

Mr Shepherd said hosting the tournament had given locals a chance to see top players compete and to see what international hockey was all about.

"Hockey is really on the up in New Zealand at the moment, and we're pretty proud of the efforts which have gone into it.

"And, from the Northland perspective, we've been particularly proud with how we've been able to get our province of origin players into the national side."

New Zealand has two games remaining, one against the United States of America today at 3pm, while their final match depends on the outcome of today's.

They will either play at 1pm ( in the third/fourth place playoff) or the 3.30pm final tomorrow.

Mr Shepherd said he hoped the success of this week's tournament would help add merit to discussions surrounding the inclusion of a third turf in the future.