The Jubilee Park grandstand is set to be demolished. Photo / Michael Cunningham
Northland’s historic home of rugby league is stepping into a new future which will allow the sport to flourish and a local school to thrive.
Owned by Whangārei City and Districts Rugby League (FCDRL), Jubilee Park has entered into a lease with the Ministry of Education for nearby Te Kāpehu Whetū Kura Kaupapa - who want to utilise a part of the land to build their school in one place.
Te Kāpehu Whetū has a roll of 150 and is currently split across 78 Tarewa Road and several leased buildings on Lower Dent Street and Herekino Street.
The Ministry of Education has explained additional short-term roll growth classrooms are being delivered to the 78 Tarewa Road site to meet the demand for student places.
FCDRL co-chairman Haemish Reid said the lease will offer “handsome income” to allow much-needed work to continue at Jubilee Park, which up until early last year had sat in a dilapidated state.
“We’re earning something that is going to, over time, benefit rugby league,” he said.
A full-sized rugby field will still sit in place. However, things are being “slightly moved” to accommodate Te Kāpehu Whetū’s classrooms.
“There’s some redevelopment there in terms of adjusting that full-sized pitch to fit,” he explained. This includes the demolishing of the grandstand.
Reid described rugby league in New Zealand as “broken”, confirmed by a damning Rugby New Zealand review this year.
“The grassroots game is struggling financially. There seems to be no funding mechanism to fully satisfy these grassroots entities,” he said.
The new income stream will support FCDRL in a way that it’s never been supported before.
“It’s absolutely huge compared to what we were getting before. We’re not going to name what those figures are, but it’s [a more than] 2000 per cent increase.”
The money will help fund and assist clubs to be more “financially competent”, he said.
Reid said the step forward has come down to a “dynamic” board that is tidying up governance structure so that it’s “bulletproof”, so “when we’re gone, we’ve set the legacy”.
Reid said Jubilee Park touches “so many” in the community - not just Te Kapehu Whetu, but those involved with rugby league and those who live nearby and look down upon the park.
Reid has received frequent calls from people who have rung him to state how unhappy they were with the number of issues at Jubilee Park.
These include drug dealing, gang activity, using the pitch for burnouts and homeless people living in the grandstands “drinking copious amounts of alcohol” and smashing glass bottles everywhere.
Now, these complainants are ringing to congratulate and thank FCDRL for getting involved and getting Jubilee Park back up to standard.
“Now we’re getting it back to a suitable standard, slowly but surely. People get upset it doesn’t happen just like that, but it takes time.”
He wants to reassure people that the field is not going anywhere.
“We’ve always maintained that the full-sized rugby league field will be always maintained.
“We’re not going to give up the dirt for development. It’s still historically the home ground for rugby league in Northland.”
Te Kāpehu Whetū board chairwoman Kaye Taylor said the wheels are finally “in motion” to have the school all in one place.
“We’ve been trying to get the league to move in that direction for over 10 years,” she said.
Taylor said planning and design for these buildings is currently under way.
“Our ultimate aim is to bring the whole school together,” Taylor said - something that is “going to take a while.”
Taylor said the school couldn’t yet use the neighbouring field because they “didn’t have the right”, but now that they can, they plan to utilise it soon.
“We would be making sure that the field is utilised for the school, and that there is the ability for the league to come in and request use of the field.”
FCDRL was created last year in the hopes of reviving Jubilee Park to its former glory.
There’s room for exhibition games to be held at Jubilee Park in the future, and Reid also said that not just rugby league could benefit - the space can be utilised for other sports, too.
“There just needs to be some communication,” he said.
Reid said the changes occurring are setting the foundation so that “our mokopuna’s mokopuna are going to benefit from this”.
Ministry of Education property, infrastructure and digital head Sam Fowler said they are “undertaking feasibility planning with the intention of creating a single Te Kāpehu Whetū site for the schools’ ākonga”.
“Possible locations of this single site will be identified through this planning,” he said.
Brodie Stone is the education and general news reporter at the Advocate. Brodie recently graduated from Massey University and has a special interest in the environment and investigative reporting.