Mayor Daniell is in the hot seat

Masterton Mayor Gary Daniell is in the hot seat.
The Wairarapa football fraternity is waiting with bated breath to see what transpires from a meeting he and CEO Wes ten Hove have had with Wairarapa United chairman Phil Keinzley.
Right at the top of the agenda was how best to overcome the hassles which have seen Wairarapa United's flagship Central League side play only three of their home games at their Pugh Sports Bowl headquarters this season.
Most of the problems have concerned the state of the playing surface there.
Central league is the second highest tier of domestic football in New Zealand and you simply can't expect players at that level to perform on sub-standard pitches.
Yes, there will be times when the weather man dictates that surfaces are going to become heavy and uneven but it's way past a joke when they provide an inconsistent bounce on a regular basis.
Which is what would have been happening at the Sports Bowl had it been used to any extent.
Fortunately, Wairarapa United have not had to concede their home advantage because of this situation but they came close.
Had not Queen Elizabeth Park Oval been made available for a couple of games and Masterton AFC kindly offering the use of Hullena Park for three or four others those matches would very probably been transferred out of the region.
The pity is, of course, that neither of those grounds are available to Wairarapa United anything like permanently. Well, not in current circumstances anyway.
Cricket, understandably, has first call on the Park Oval while the Masterton club rightly puts the needs of their own sides at the head of their priority list.
Mind you, the cricket people might well wonder why if football can't be played at the Park Oval after a certain time to allow the cricket wickets there to be in top shape for the start of their season how come they never seem to play club games there from the word go?
Last season, for example, there was such a shortage of cricket wickets available in the Masterton area that without the good graces of Rathkeale College and Wairarapa College whoever was responsible for the draws would have faced an impossible task.
And, quite frankly, you have to worry about what will happen this coming cricket season too as the so-called remedial work at the Park Sportsground certainly doesn't seem to have provided the sort of grass cover which would make fielding a pleasant experience.
In fact, watching football games there you get the impression it's not exactly done anything for that sport either!
But back to the Sports Bowl.
If it remains first cab off the rank on the council's list of possible of home grounds for Wairarapa United - and reading between the lines there is no certainty of that - then Mayor Daniell must direct those responsible for its upkeep to do everything in their power to have it in the best possible shape, week after week.
Not like this year when remedial work there didn't seem to get into full swing until about the start of the football season and then lapsed as it progressed.
For a week or two it was actually in reasonable nick but when a season runs for something like five months that's hardly good enough, is it? Indeed it's downright woeful.
What Mayor Daniell and his fellow councillors need to remember is that if Wairarapa United's home ground is not deemed suitable for Central League play then there is the very real prospect of not only that team's future being in jeopardy but that of the whole club as well.
Which would be a huge loss considering the opportunity they also provide for the area's junior players to compete against the best of their age groups in the greater Wellington region.
And they shape up well too, judging by the unbeaten run of the Wairarapa United 12th grade side this season.
That Wairarapa United has had its detractors over the years for one reason or another is very true but there is no question they have raised the profile of football in the province and Wairarapa sport in general would be considerably worse off without them.
In fact, when it comes to spectator appeal their Central League side is arguably the most popular club team over all codes operating in the province, and deservedly so when you consider they are currently ranked the top non-Wellington-based side in their competition.
Below them are the best club teams from Hawke's Bay, Taranaki and Palmerston North
Some critics will be quick to note a number of their players are "imports" but all other Central League sides are in the same boat. And, anyway, if you want to get bums on seats these days it is important to provide a marketable product, and Wairarapa United have certainly done that.
It's not as if guaranteeing Wairarapa United suitable ground conditions, and changing rooms as well, at the Pugh Sports Bowl, or probably anywhere else either, would cost huge sums of money either.
On the scale of things it would probably pale into insignificance when compared with the monies being talked about to upgrade the council offices, and you
could argue with some strength which is most important, couldn't you?