Napier's McLean Park gets the eye from World Cup football hopefuls

A_HBT133912-01.JPG Football at McLean Park. Now one of the World's top teams is looking at training there. Photo / NZME

The World's No. 2 women's football team could be based in Napier during the World Cup tournament next year.

The decision on whether Sweden will use McLean Park as a training base for the June 22-August 2 cup, with twin-nation hosting for the first time and more than 100 matches in New Zealand and Australia, will be made after representatives visit McLean Park tomorrow.

Representatives from The Netherlands (ranked No 8) will also inspect the park, as will representatives of Costa Rica, Spain and South Africa.

The visits follow the weekend's draw, which decided the matches for the 32 teams in what is the ninth women's World Cup, the first played in China in 1991 with a peak crowd of 65,000. The highest single-match attendance was more than 90,000 in the US in 1999.

While McLean Park is not a match venue, with a capacity of about 20,000, it was named as a training venue and will be out of bounds for other sport for about six weeks, including the Hawke's Bay club rugby finals.

Napier City Council events manager Kevin Murphy said teams looking over Napier appear to be impressed by the size of the park's oval.

"I think a lot of New Zealanders do not realise how big this [tournament] is," he said. "It's huge."

It is the first time such a training-base concept has been used by FIFA, with at least 16 throughout New Zealand and Australia.

Matches in New Zealand will be played at Eden Park in Auckland, Rugby Park in Hamilton, Wellington Regional Stadium and indoor arena Forsyth Bar Stadium in Dunedin. Venues in Australia include Stadium Australia in Sydney and Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane.