This is being driven by Tataki Auckland Unlimited(or TAU, the council CCO that has managed it since 2014). They want to“deconstruct” Auckland’s newest stadium, a $450 million sporting asset, and they want to do it despite previously trumpeting North Harbour as “the country’s finest mid-size community stadium”.
So what’s changed and what are the implications of such drastic action? Well, if deconstruction were to occur, the entire northern region of Auckland would be without a venue capable of hosting any major sporting, cultural or music event, as regularly occurred under the previous management, pre-TAU. And that would be for the fastest-growing sporting and development node in Auckland with a population fast approaching 500,000.
Sydney FC's Rachel Lowe celebrates scoring during the A-League match at North Harbour Stadium. Photo / Photosport
It’s a significant decision, yet Aucklanders are being asked to give their view based largely on the self-serving commentary of the proponents and brief but loaded wording in the feedback form.
Recently this decidedly one-sided offering was augmented by a co-ordinated media blitz from TAU board members and management, all publicly running down the stadium.
Nowhere was there any context given to the recent history and development of this stadium. Most, for instance, will be unaware that from 1997-2014, the stadium was managed by the North Harbour Stadium Trust. That trust was very successful in attracting a wide variety of content to the stadium including numerous All Black and Kiwi rugby league tests, NRL games, Super Rugby games, Fifa matches, an A-League football franchise and a variety of concerts and cultural events for the large population north of the bridge.
The trust also built up a healthy reserve fund to ensure the ongoing maintenance and capital replacement.
Around 2014, the trust decided the transfer of the stadium into the new “Super City” CCO would be in the best interests of the stadium going forward. Members were initially circumspect but were eventually persuaded by assurances that council resources and management expertise would ensure the ongoing attraction of events to the stadium, both on the field and in the stadium’s extensive lounge facilities.
Since that time, however, the original trustees, along with many in the North Harbour community, have watched in dismay as TAU has not only failed to attract anything like the content that characterised the performance of the previous trust but has also significantly compromised the use of the ground with some disastrous operational decisions.
The most graphic example of these failures was the $2.5m spent in 2019 demolishing a large section of the western half of the ground to accommodate a baseball franchise that subsequently went bust owing money. In so doing, TAU effectively removed the ability of North Harbour Stadium to attract major sporting events.
Remarkably, no subsequent effort has been made to reinstate the western half of the ground, despite this being a relatively straightforward fix. This means half the stadium now looks like a bomb has landed on it while the other half retains the look and facilities of a modern stadium, the equal of any in New Zealand, in fact.
If it wasn’t so sad the incongruity of the current configuration would be almost comical.
John Watson. Photo / Nick Reed
Instead of addressing these glaring shortcomings for which they alone have been responsible,Tataki Auckland Unlimitedhas moved to demolition as a solution to their current financial constraints.
This is the same CCO, it should be noted, who in a previous term of council also proposed demolishing a large part of Mt Smart Stadium in order to turn it into a speedway track. That was stopped but the mentality that believes Auckland must lose one of its stadiums continues - irrespective of the huge increase in population, the advent of new sporting franchises and the phenomenal growth in women’s codes.
What also prevails is an organisational irrationality that jumps from grandiose redevelopment plans that never eventuate (and for which there is no money) to mindless destruction of valued community assets.
Fortunately, in this instance there are other options: to keep the stadium as is but to change the operational management. That would be a better place to start - for North Harbour and elsewhere.
John Watson is Auckland councillor for the Albany Ward.
