Tauranga Domain: Protest aims to raise awareness of stadium proposal

A 3D aerial view of the proposed boutique stadium at Tauranga Domain. Image / Boffa Miskell and Visitor Solutions

A collective of Tauranga community and sports groups concerned about plans for a future stadium in the central city hope their protest tomorrow will get more people involved in their fight to stop the proposal’s progress.

Tauranga City Council, however, says no decision has been made to build a stadium at Tauranga Domain and any future proposal would first be consulted with the community.

Several community entities have come together to form the Alliance Against the Tauranga City Council Active Reserve Masterplan, which will hold a public protest meeting at the domain tomorrow at 1pm.

The alliance includes the Tauranga Millenium Track Trust, Bay of Plenty Speedway Association, Tauranga Croquet Club, and Tauranga Lawn Tennis Club, some of which have splinter groups equally concerned with the stadium proposal.

A boutique $170-180 million stadium at Tauranga Domain is among proposals in Tauranga City Council’s Active Reserves Masterplans, which cover the domain, Baypark, and Blake Park in Mount Maunganui.

The masterplans propose relocations including moving Tauranga Croquet Club and Tauranga Lawn Bowling Club from the domain, the all-weather athletics track from the domain to Baypark Stadium and temporarily moving the speedway’s pit area in Baypark to allow extra space for community sports.

At Blake Park, it was proposed to upgrade the rugby and cricket fields, add extra grass fields added, reconfigure the tennis courts and relocate netball courts to Baypark.

Millenium Track trustee Garth Mathieson said the protest aimed to persuade the council “to desist with the boutique stadium and revoke the portions of the masterplans that will see the athletic track, the croquet club, the bowling club, and the domain, and Baypark Speedway gone”.

Mathieson - a former chairman of the trust, which organised $1.7m towards the track build - said the track and equipment shed were gifted under a memorandum of understanding to the council. The track was also certified by the International Association of Athletics Federations as a world-class track and was the only all-weather athletics track in the Bay of Plenty, he said.

He believed relocating the track to Baypark would not work as the site was unsuitable, being too small, next to a swamp, and in a mostly industrial area potentially exposed to air pollution.

He also questioned how future-proofing a domain stadium would be.

In his view: “If you build at the domain, there won’t be any parking. It will never be expanded. There’s just not enough room.

Tauranga Millennium Track Trust trustee Garth Mathieson is among those fighting a proposed boutique stadium being built at Tauranga Domain. Photo / Mead Norton

“Baypark is the wrong site for an athletics track. Just as the domain is the wrong site for a stadium.”

Tauranga Croquet Club president Gretchen Benvie said she hoped the protest would achieve “public awareness” so people could get involved regarding the domain’s future.

“The people of Tauranga need to know what the plans are for this Active Reserves Masterplans.”

She believed the proposals would “destroy the domain as we know it”.

“We need to keep that with all its trees and lovely green open space for everyone to use for future generations.”

Tauranga Lawn Tennis Club president Philip Brown said that with increasing housing intensification in downtown Tauranga, “it’s the only green space left”.

He said Tauranga Domain was the equivalent of Albert Park in Auckland or Central Park in New York.

“And once it’s destroyed, it never comes back.”

In his view, the proposal cost was “enormous” and the benefits “very small” and the public had not been given enough information or input into the project.

Tauranga City Council's Gareth Wallis. Photo / Andrew Warner

Rodney Wood, a member of a steering group made up of “key stakeholders”, including the Bay of Plenty Speedway Association, said there were “a lot of people who don’t actually realise what’s happening around the city” including what the council was doing and “how much of the ratepayers’ money they’re intending to spend”.

Tauranga City Council city development and partnerships general manager Gareth Wallis said no decision about a potential stadium at the domain had been made.

Economic development agency Priority One was developing a business case exploring the viability, affordability, and economic benefit of the stadium idea. This was expected by April, providing a better indication of potential costs and funding options.

“Any future proposal will go through a community consultation process, so clubs and the wider community will definitely have the opportunity to share their views.”

Wallis said whatever decision was made, the council would continue to work with key groups to “optimise” the current sites as land to meet growing demand for sport, events, and green space was limited.

Wallis said it was committed to engaging with all groups involved, so it could work through any potential opportunities and challenges together.

Council community services general manager Barbara Dempsey said the council was “heartened” by positive feedback from interested groups so far.

“We acknowledge that some people have concerns about some of the proposed changes, and we will address those concerns together as the project develops.”

More meetings were planned with the intent of listening to what people had to say, she said.

Dempsey said the council was reviewing the three sites as part of a bigger project to make the city’s shared green spaces better and more accessible.

Preliminarily plans were developed which would be followed by more detailed planning after consultation, she said.

“Over time, we would like these sites to become high-quality facilities, which may include a community stadium, new netball and athletics facilities, new sports fields, regional gymnasium and new indoor courts, developed as multi-use sporting precincts.”