Eden Park's outer oval flooded. Video / Brett Phibbs
Auckland’s major sporting venues have suffered more damage as heavy rain again wreaked havoc across the city.
Eden Park’s outer oval has been flooded after another month’s worth of rain fell in Auckland in just 24 hours.
Significant water had already entered the stadium after Friday’s deadly storm, causing several events to be cancelled including today’s scheduled Auckland v Canterbury Ford Trophy match which has been moved to Christchurch’s Hagley Oval on Thursday.
Operational areas like offices and storage facilities were also impacted by floodwaters.
Eden Park's outer oval flooded. Photo / Brett Phibbs
In a social media post on Monday, Eden Park said work is being done to ensure the stadium will be fit for purpose for future events, including pop superstar Ed Sheeran’s first concert on February 10.
“As you will have seen, like many areas around Auckland, Eden Park sustained significant water ingress as a result of the weather events over the past 72 hours,” the post said.
“We have been incredibly humbled by all the offers of local and international support, and we are privileged to be part of such a kind community.
“We are 100% focused on ensuring the stadium is fit for purpose, and we are looking forward to hosting Ed Sheeran and delivering the internationally recognised Te Matatini festival.
Mt Smart Stadium, North Harbour Stadium and Western Springs have also been impacted by the heavy rain.
The Warriors moved today’s training to One Tree Hill College with Mt Smart closed.
Alexandra Park suffers damage
The entire track surface of Alexandra Park will need to be replaced after being trashed by the Auckland floods, with one of their biggest meetings already moved to Cambridge.
The torrential rain last Friday and subsequent downpours have washed part of the track away and left deep rutting around the 1000m circuit, meaning the three meetings scheduled for February 9, 17, and 24 have been transferred to Cambridge.
That includes the Harness Millions meeting, featuring the $200,000 three-year-old male sales pace and $150,000 three-year-old fillies’ sales pace.
While the ATC are disappointed to lose it, the move to Cambridge will be largely seamless.
“We hate losing a premier meeting and high-class racing,” says ATC president Jamie MacKinnon.
“But one inspection of the track and you realise we simply couldn’t hold it.”
The track at Alexandra Park. Photo / Supplied
Because of the camber on the harness racing track, heavy rain usually causes water to flow down toward the inside of the track, with the dual problems of cutting deep gorges into the surface and in the worst cases washing the top of the track off and into the infield.
That has been the case for the entire circuit and worse near the apartment precinct (around the top of the home straight) where the stormwater drains overflowed.
“We want to make it clear, this isn’t an issue caused by the apartment complexes, the whole track has been affected and needs to be replaced,” says MacKinnon.
That comes with its own set of challenges, none more so that the reconstruction requires 10 days of fine weather, almost consecutively.
“Then there are the challenges around sourcing material, labour and a whole lot of other things that need to go right,” says MacKinnon.
The track will need to be stripped right back to its rock base, have 500 tonnes of crusher dust put back on and then 150 tonnes of a lime-based product.
That is at least a $100,000 project and MacKinnon says his team are still examining their insurance policies to ascertain what, if any, compensation will be available.
“We had Catherine McDonald and track expert John Denton up here from HRNZ and we were all able to make the call very early so at least everybody knows where we stand for February,” says MacKinnon.
“Now the hard work begins and we just have to get on with it as best we can and hope for some good weather.”
While the Harness Millions meeting would have been well-attended the other two meetings Alexandra Park will forgo will not mean huge losses from hospitality sales.
The big wet in the north also caused the Waikato Guineas meeting at Te Rapa to be postponed on Wednesday and it will now be held on Friday.
