Hawke's Bay Regional Sports Park to now be known as Mitre 10 Park

HBRC chairman Rex Graham, Hastings Mayor Sandra Hazlehurst and Mitre 10 owners Graeme Ricketts and Stephen Ricketts putting up the new sign. Photo / Warren Buckland

The Hawke's Bay Regional Sports Park's name is set to change.

The rights have been awarded to the Ricketts family, who own both the Hastings and Napier Mitre 10s, with the park now to be known as Mitre 10 Park.

Sports Park chairman Rex Graham described the arrangement as a milestone for the park.

"The Ricketts family have been doing business in Hawke's Bay since 1961 and for the last 44 years it's been under the Mitre 10 brand."

He said he also wanted to acknowledge the Smith family from Pak'nSave Hastings and Higgins contracting.

"Both supported us when times were tough, and both have been with us for 10 years.

"We couldn't have done it without them."

Graeme and Stephen Ricketts, along with their late father Derek, had been looking for an opportunity to give back to the Hawke's Bay community, and sponsoring the park was able to fulfil that vision.

The brothers said users of the park are heavily subsidised from a range of sources, and the sponsorship will help keep it that way.

"Affordability is a big issue for young families and assisting them through sponsorship is a great way for us to invest in the community."

The company has a five-year history with the Sports Park, the first Mitre 10 Tough Kid event was held in 2014, with 600 school children taking part that year.

The park's CEO, Jock Mackintosh, said the sponsorship was one of the most important things to happen at the park.

"It underpins us financially for the larger maintenance type expenditure that starts to kick in after 10 years of operation.

"We'll still need to raise funds, but we are in a much better shape to meet those challenges."