The Central clubhouse at Linton Park East Reserve. Photo / Mathew Nash
A Rotorua rugby league club has called on the council to end a seven-year wait to return to a clubhouse abandoned amid an inter-club feud.
Central Rugby League Club was founded in 1969, but split into two factions in 2017 after an internal dispute, according to a 2019 Sports Tribunal of New Zealand finding.
The stoush soured relations between the club and its governing body, the Bay of Plenty District Rugby League, which eventually suspended the original committee.
The tribunal overruled the committee’s suspension in 2019, ruling it an “egregious breach of natural justice” and ordering the committee be reinstated.
The club was awarded a total $4500 in costs from Bay of Plenty District Rugby League.
Several former members, however, started a new club, Central Pride, in 2019. It now caters for junior, rangatahi and senior rugby league.
Central Pride’s desire to use the traditional home at Linton Park East Reserve remains unfulfilled, however, with the clubhouse essentially abandoned.
Central Pride president Jason Walker wants answers from Rotorua Lakes Council, which owns the surrounding reserve.
“It should be sorted after all this time,” he said.
“It just seems like a waste to let the building sit there and deteriorate, possibly to the point it has to be knocked over.”
He said the club had businesses ready to help fix up the building, which he believed could become “a hub for the community”.
“For a lot of younger men, being involved gives them a way to get away from difficult backgrounds, to let out frustrations and talk things through with others.”
Ernie Walker played senior rugby league until he was 70 and is a former president of the original club.
He believes Central Pride should have the clubhouse.
“We need to be back in there, get it up and running, and make this a viable place to help kids who are roaming the streets get into sports,” he said.
Walker continues to monitor his old stomping ground and even claimed to have twice ejected squatters after a “little rumble”.
Central Rugby League Club was dissolved by the Registrar of Incorporated Societies in May 2023 after a period of inactivity.
This dissolution was revoked this month after the club provided financial statements from 2021 to 2024 as evidence of ongoing operations.
The registrar said this was sufficient to show that the club “was carrying on its operations” when it dissolved.
Walker was surprised to hear that. He said the original club had not fielded a team since 2017-18 and had sold off much of its kitchen appliances, training gear and bar equipment in a September 2021 auction.
The auction raised $16,732, according to financial statements filed by Central.
Walker has had numerous interactions with Rotorua Lakes Council, including with Mayor Tania Tapsell.
This included a proposal in 2024 to resurrect the clubhouse to be a “thriving marae and community hub”.
He said the process had been “bloody hopeless”.
He doubted the chances of reconciliation with the original club’s current leadership and believed it was up to the council to “sort it out”.
“I’m getting a bit past it now, and I had my day,” he said. “But I want to make sure the clubhouse is there for the community.”
Tapsell said she had been contacted a “few times” by club members. She “encouraged” them to continue engagement, but said legal processes had blocked progress.
She hoped these could be resolved and the clubhouse used again “as soon as possible”.
“Sports and access to appropriate facilities is really important for our community, and council will keep supporting opportunities for this across our district.”
Kerry Mason was the president of Central Rugby League Club when it was suspended.
He resigned in 2019 but is now listed as the club’s treasurer in recently filed financial documents.
These show total assets of more than $130,000 against bank debt of $10,758, $27,430 in liabilities including unpaid rates and loans, and a reduction in the value of its land and buildings from $281,000 to $100,000 over six years.
In a statement provided to Local Democracy Reporting, Mason said the council had “bled the club dry” with rates, building warrants and other licensing costs, as well as disputed penalties.
He said the clubhouse front door and windows had been broken in the past two months.
Requests to the council for improved lighting to help prevent such damage had gone unanswered, he said.
He did not comment on plans for the clubhouse, the future of the club or the impact on the community.
Council community experience group manager Alex Wilson told Local Democracy Reporting that the building’s future was the subject of continuing legal proceedings.
“Until this is completed, we are unable to take any steps or make decisions regarding the building, or comment on individual parties or potential future arrangements.”
She said the reserve continued to be maintained by the council, while steps had also been taken to “secure the building” while unoccupied.
The Bay of Plenty District Rugby League was approached for comment.
Mathew Nash is a Local Democracy Reporting journalist based at the Rotorua Daily Post. He has previously written for SunLive, been a regular contributor to RNZ and was a football reporter in the UK for eight years.
- LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.