Christchurch quake leaves hockey grounds in ruins

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

The home of Canterbury Hockey is in ruins and may never stage a game again after Porritt Park was destroyed by the 7.1 earthquake that rocked the Canterbury region on Saturday morning.

The multi-million dollar grounds in Kerrs Reach, Christchurch are likely to be condemned with $8m needed to rebuild a new complex and ensure Christchurch have international standard fields once again.

Chief executive of Canterbury Hockey Tim Shannahan says all parts of the complex were affected by the earthquake from the playing surfaces to the light towers.

"Sand has risen up and created some mounds in the playing surface but we've also got areas where the ground has effectively fallen away and so if you actually stand on the turf there is nothing underneath the turf so to speak," he told nzherald.co.nz.

"We've got light towers on slight angles, we've got fences that have buckled, our administration office has subsided to one end. There are signs of significant cracking in the lockworks of the main stadium. The City Council has deemed it closed at this time until a more thorough inspection can be done but I think there's a possibility it might be condemned."

Porritt Park's two grounds, which last hosted an international match when the New Zealand women's hockey team played India last year, played a major role for hockey in the region with only two other hockey fields existing in Christchurch. Luckily the other two grounds survived the earthquake unharmed.

But that can't be said for Porritt Park with Mr Shannahan saying a bill of almost $8m would replace the two grounds that have been lost.

"The standard of the fields were probably valued at close to $2m each, so you're looking at $4m for the replacement of the fields. I really don't know the exact figure for rebuilding a stadium of this nature but I wouldn't be surprised if we were looking at $7.5m."

Canterbury Hockey may look at moving away from Porritt Park with new insurance premiums possibly increasing, now that it's known the ground could be affected by future earthquakes.

The short-term focus is to build a third ground elsewhere to meet the demand next winter.

"We've still got two hockey fields in Christchurch. Looking at the summer programme we'll try and deliver as much as we can at those two existing fields, Nunweek Park and Marist Park a new field this year at St Bede's College," Mr Shannahan said

"Ideally we need at least four grounds for our existing player membership, if we go to some ridiculous playing times, that means incredibly early starts and incredibly late finishes, we may go very close to getting through a season with three fields."