Wairarapa netball stadium bid stalls

FOCUS: Bessborough's Lorraine Maloney (right) lines up a shot under pressure from Pioneer Blue's Kenny Aeto at the Colombo Rd courts last weekend.

NETBALL Wairarapa's plans for a new indoor stadium may have been stalled.

A feasibility study commissioned by NW and the Masterton District Council on such a facility has identified opportunities to improve the use of the existing indoor court network in Wairarapa for the benefit of indoor sports and favours the use of the existing facilities before considering building a new multi-functional site.

It says this should be addressed by a staged implementation approach that firstly maximises the existing indoor court network and in future a new multi-functional facility may be warranted after the progression of a series of trigger factors

These factors would include the exceeding of target utilisation for existing indoor courts, demonstrating an ability to fund and operate the multi-functional facility under a sustainable model, significant population growth and corresponding indoor court player number growth and a high level of collaboration across indoor court providers and users.

"While it is recognised there is a clear desire for a new multi-functional facility in the Wairarapa the indoor court network is currently under utilised," the study says.

Reasons for this included unaffordability, facilities not fit for purpose, lack of availability for community use and distance from other amenities.

"Further investigation into the reasons for lack of use identified above have demonstrated a need to improve knowledge of existing facility provision in the first instance, followed by series of upgrades/improvements to ensure the facilities are able to be used most effectively," the study says.

Should those investigations show the existing amenities could not be improved in an affordable manner that meets the community needs, a cost-benefit analysis should be undertaken to determine the benefits of a new multi-use facility versus upgrades to existing sites.

Meanwhile, matches in the premier/premier reserve grading round continue tonight and tomorrow. In-form Harcourts take on Carterton New World Red at the Genesis Recreation Centre today at 7.30pm while the action at Colombo Rd tomorrow has Pioneer Blue against Celtic, St Matthew's A playing Makoura College, Wairarapa College meeting Gladstone Black and Bessborough doing battle with Carterton New World Legends.