Losing streak: Venue and sports bosses hit up minister to curb pitch invasions

McLean Park hosted the Warriors and Broncos last week - and too many pitch invaders. Photo / Ian Cooper

New Zealand sports stadium managers and major sports organisations have written to Sport and Recreation minister Grant Robertson to help stop pitch invasions such as that which blighted Saturday’s NRL rugby league match in Napier.

The content of the letter was not available pending confirmation the minister had seen the letter, but it’s understood to seek legislative change to extend the range of events covered by the Major Events Management Act, which allows for penalties of a fine up to $5000 and/or three months’ imprisonment.

But the act protects various interests of only the biggest events, ones of international significance, such as the Rugby World Cups and the America’s Cup.

It would not have covered the Warriors-Brisbane Broncos match, at which about 20 of the more than 16,000 spectators ran on to or tried to run on to the pitch. They initially entered from paid seated areas but eventually came from the embankment at McLean Park progressively delaying play in a series of chaotic moments stretching the last 11 minutes to about 17 minutes.

Security staff apprehended 12 people and turned them over to police who, despite having a custody wagon on site, ejected offenders from the ground, without being charged. They were trespassed from the ground for two years and warned of prosecution for future offending, dismissed by many as being slapped with a wet match-ticket.

Police told Hawke’s Bay Today that three were “juveniles” who were “returned” to their parents, and that five were from outside Hawke’s Bay, but, citing privacy reasons, haven’t released name, age or gender details, although at least three who made it on to the oval were female.

As at late Friday morning, it was understood the Napier City Council had not received details of those trespassed from its McLean Park ground, although it expects it will be informed.

The next events at the park are the July 10 Fifa Women’s Football World Cup warm-up between New Zealand’s Football Ferns and Vietnam, the Hawke’s Bay club rugby finals on July 14-15, and the Hawke’s Bay Magpies NPC rugby matches in August-October. Council events manager Kevin Murphy is hopeful McLean Park will be on a busy international cricket calendar in summer.

Murphy says fears that the actions of the pitch invaders last Saturday will harm Napier’s chances of more NRL matches are real, to the extent that Napier is in intense competition with other provincial centres for big events, and has to be able to guarantee the best.

Getting the events comes at big cost, in some cases fees or guarantees might apply in picking up a match from someone’s outside-of-Hawke’s-Bay home schedule.

He says the benefits of the public are entertainment as spectators, businesses as hosts to the visiting masses, and general Hawke’s Bay profile.

It is now calculated from ticketing data that there were over 6500 people from outside Hawke’s Bay at the NRL match – about 40 per cent – and net economic benefits to the region of bigger events has been calculated at around $20 million in a year, Murphy says.

It certainly got the profile on Saturday, with media around the globe including the BBC numbering 10 different invaders from the embankment in footage it displayed - not the sort of profile Napier wanted.

If the numbers mounted, he “knew” Napier would never get another game, and it was frustrating and annoying to hear the offenders would not be prosecuted.

“There now probably won’t be a game out of Auckland, so everyone else misses out,” he said.

Calling for naming and shaming, he said: “It’s our up-and-coming kids who love the game that are going to miss out watching their heroes play in front of them.

“These clowns have blown it for the rest of New Zealand for 2024,” he said. “They should’ve been taken back and kept in the Hastings cells till Monday morning.”