Carlaw Park's old Railway Stand may be saved by a plan to barge the piece of sporting history around Cape Reinga to an Onehunga park.
The wooden stand, opened in 1924, is condemned for public events because of fire.
Two footballing codes, the Auckland Rugby League asowner of the stand and the Auckland Australian Football Association as user of Gloucester Park near Mangere Bridge, have asked Auckland City Council for support.
The stand is too high to make the 15km journey from Parnell. The plan is to dismantle it into three sections and truck it from its existing home to the Auckland waterfront.
From there, the 75m, 2000-seat stand would make a three-day, 680km journey around the top of the island and back down to Onehunga. It would then be transported by heavy trailer to its new home. The cost of the barge trip by Sea Tow is estimated at $400,000.
Auckland Rugby League hopes to start the move early next year. Once reassembled, up to $2 million would be spent on dressing rooms and on building a function room and offices.
There are currently no facilities at Gloucester Park. "At the moment we've got a port-a-loo," said AAFL project manager Will MacKenzie.
Long-serving ARL secretary Ron MacGregor would just about live at Carlaw on Saturdays, playing as an under-18 and later administering matches. "You felt part of the game in that stand, it was all right there in front of you. As a player you wanted to be on Carlaw Park, the atmosphere was great."
A fireman used to stand on duty during games in later years and MacGregor was not the only one to feel the stand's days were numbered. "It's old, like me, but it has its own magic."
