Mr McCabe could not comment on the original choice of surface and the chairman at the time, Garth Mathieson, did not respond by edition time.
Tauranga Ramblers Harrier Club and Mayor Stuart Crosby supported the trust yesterday.
Tauranga Ramblers president Malcolm Taylor said it was the "fastest surface in the world", used for the Olympics and world championships and expected to only last the length of the event.
Despite that, he understood the same surface had lasted 18 years on a track in Canada and agreed it was the high amount of use and the warmer weather in Tauranga that wore it out.
"The track gets an incredible amount of use. It's probably the most-used track for training in New Zealand.
"They went for the fastest track and you'd think it would last."
The club was disappointed the renewal had come around so soon but it was a case of "things do wear out", he said.
"You could say it's had so much use it's caused it to wear out. But there's no point in having something shiny in the corner that no one uses."
Mr Crosby said the surface was the best available at the time and the expectation then was that it would last up to 15 years.
"This particular product hasn't stood the test of time, and they may say it will last 10 to 15 years, but with these artificial surfaces it's not until you put it in that you know how it will handle."
Although it was a surface designed for high-end athletics, in reality it was used for daily training, but Mr Crosby did not want the track closed off to the public.
"I certainly don't want to see the surface downgraded so we can't host regional and national events. It's about striking the right balance.
"I think you just have to accept that it's open to the public. It will wear out faster."
New Zealand's leading sprint coach Kerry Hill, who had trained and coached at hundreds of tracks around the world, said every track was affected by the weather.
He hoped extensive research would be done into the new surface to ensure it would handle the conditions in Tauranga.
"If anyone was proposing any particular surface, I hope they've gone to those places with the same surface and talked to the people who actually use the surface."
He trained a number of top runners at the Tauranga Domain and said they avoided the worst deteriorated areas, used the recommended spikes and used different parts of the track to preserve it as much as possible.
He said the original surface seemed "a bit odd" as "I suspect it is very popular with elite athletes", but "it's used every day of the week for training".
The climate and the nature of use needed to be closely considered before a new surface was chosen, and he hoped frequent users would be consulted on what was needed.
Athletics track
*The six-year-old track on The Domain was originally expected to last 15 years but this had shrunk to nine years, with the council and Tauranga Millennium Track Trust now looking at going halves for a replacement worth $790,000.
*Two councillors opposed the decision for the council to pick up half the costs.
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