Christchurch earthquake damage threatens hockey

Chief executive of Canterbury Hockey Tim Shannahan stands next to a crack at Porritt Park. Photo / Sarah Ivey

Hockey organisers are worried their sport could be at risk after Porritt Park's two fields were left with gaping holes and cracks.

The damage has halved the number of turfs in the city.

Canterbury Hockey chief executive Tim Shannahan said the sport had been steadily growing and had four fields before the quake with a fifth to be built within two years.

He said that the extra fields meant they could move away from "unsociable" midweek finish times of 10.30pm. But with just two undamaged fields remaining there was concern the sport could suffer.

"We might have to reduce the number of people who are playing or get people to play every second week," he said.

In one field a hole opened up under the turf - and no one is sure how deep it is. "You can walk across and you know there's nothing under the turf, it's completely fallen away."

Thousands of people use Porritt Park for hockey but it also has agreements with Marching Canterbury and Mainland Football.

And there is a chance rebuilding will not be allowed.

"In the end it is up to the city council, we're just leasing the land," he said.

Mr Shannahan said the fields were worth $2 million each but the bill could be up to $7 million if the stand was damaged.

This week he said the council should bring forward its investment in the park to get it rebuilt, a view criticised by some who felt there were more important issues. But he felt sport would help people to recover from the disaster if they could get back into their routine as quickly as possible.

About 5000 people used Porritt Park for hockey each year but as many as 150,000 visited it.