Chairman of The Eden Park Trust, Doug McKay talks to the Herald about the exciting proposed changes to Eden Park. Video / NZ Herald
Opinion
A really great stadium for Eden Park? It’s a really great idea. Mainly.
We’re not getting a stadium on the waterfront. Not now, not anytime in the foreseeable. There are far too many better calls on the public purse and on private funding too, and the environmental arguments don’tstack up.
Cities need to think very carefully about what they build on the edge of the sea. We have to learn how to make the best use of existing resources and how to pour less concrete. For climate reasons, Eden Park is the better bet.
The transport’s great, as well. Between them, Auckland Transport and the park have become extremely efficient at moving people in and out of Kingsland on trains and buses. Once the light rail line (or whatever mass transit National might favour instead) is built, that will only get better. The local hospitality industry is well set up, too.
There are some buts. A better Eden Park will demand frequent use, and not all the neighbours will relish that. This is a biggie.
But a repurposed stadium with a covered roof makes no sense if it can’t be used for every sport that gets a big crowd, winter and summer, and for a rich and busy lineup of concerts and other events all year round. Te Matatini under the roof, anyone?
How to reconcile the two sides of that debate? Two things might help and both are essential to this proposal.
First, the design for the stadium has to be magnificent. Surprisingly, the artist’s renders are merely utilitarian. Nope. Do way better, please.
Second, the penny pinchers have to be locked in a cupboard for the duration. Control the big costs, of course, but learn from 2011.
When the existing Eden Park renos were proposed ahead of that year’s Rugby World Cup, they featured a whole lot of landscaping, tree planting and the like. Most if it never happened. It was “value engineered” out of the project.
“Value engineering” is the nasty term for removing features from architecture and design that don’t contribute to the core function of the building. It’s vandalism with a fancy name.
The challenge is this: to transform not just the existing “mismatched bag of bones” – a very good description – but the barren sea of concrete it sits on into something beautiful. Again, the renders don’t look great.
A retractable roof is the centrepiece of a multimillion-dollar new vision for Eden Park. Image / Eden Park Trust
And to go further. How about transforming the surrounding streets as well? They’re far wider than any surburban street needs to be. Why not line them with long and lovely strips of park? Turn the whole precinct into a safe place for kids to play and families to enjoy?
The Women’s Rugby World Cup was fabulously oriented to family: use that spirit as inspiration for suburb-wide rejuvenation.
Council can come to the party on that. But ratepayers and taxpayers should not be stung for the whole stadium build. The “home of rugby” does not belong to Auckland City, nor to the Crown, but is owned and run by a trust, subject to its own Act of Parliament. Let the trust raise the money, or at least most of it.
Why do we even need this? Because a great city needs great events: sporting, cultural, all sorts, catering for everyone. For the entertainment of all of us who live here and for the economic boosts they deliver. It’s time our civic leaders stopped pretending it’s okay we’re missing out on rugby and cricket and more, and Mt Smart is just fine for music.
By the way, there’s another climate factor: flood management. Eden Park became a floodwater “detention basin” on January 27, when the park flooded, as it was supposed to. And then the water drained away and the houses all around stayed dry.
This is how we have to think now. If Eden Park loses that function, the suburb will need something just as good.
