Editorial: Park worthy of rugby's NZ heritage

A general view of Eden Park. Photo / Getty Images

It is too early to be writing off Eden Park. The stadium, newly enlarged for the Rugby World Cup, has yet to hold an event worthy of its design. It has been the venue for Super 15 matches played in wintry weather over the past fortnight and has taken some blame for the poor attendance. The new "covered" stands have not provided much cover from swirling rain.

Anyone sitting among the small crowd that watched a dismal game in the drizzle of last Friday night could be forgiven for taking a dim view of his surroundings, particularly if he is well-travelled and familiar with the shelter and grandeur of great stadiums around the world.

Many of them are magnificent big bowls with suspended roofs that, if not capable of closing completely, extend so far on to the playing area that not much light can get in. For the most part they are in places where skies are grey and there is seldom much sunlight to get in.

Auckland is not one of those places. Eden Park has been designed for its location, population, climate and purposes. The suburban location is not ideal for the nation's largest sports stadium but Auckland spurned the previous government's offer of a waterfront site. The population is modest, the climate mild and the stadium has to serve several sports in daylight and darkness.

The north of New Zealand is sunny, wet and warm. Auckland's rain is typically torrential and brief. In late summer and autumn most of its rain comes from the subtropical northeast. This month has seen the tail end of autumn storms from that direction, swirling into the Eden Park's new south stand.

In later winter and spring, when the World Cup is here, the city's prevailing winds are from the southwest. They are colder but drier, having come over land, and if they bring rain it is from the direction Eden Park's stands have been designed to resist. The higher south stand should be a better barrier for the whole ground.

True, as critics note, it does not precisely match the north stand - an architectural delight in its own right. The upgraded stadium is still a collection of stands rather than a unified structure and it will have some temporary banks of seating on scaffolding to give it the capacity required for the World Cup.

Auckland is not London, Paris or even Sydney, which has four times its population. When visitors come from those places to this World Cup they have been given to expect something different. They know New Zealand does not have the population to support stadiums on the scale of theirs but they know rugby has a place in this country that it has nowhere else. They know its heritage here, they have heard of Eden Park.

The greatest thing the refurbishment may have done for Eden Park is to retain its name. So many of the world's great stadiums have ditched a time-honoured name for money or for something that supposedly sounds more contemporary. It is to the credit of all concerned in Auckland that despite the usual arguments over funding there was never a public proposal to sell naming rights.

Those who come to the finals of the Rugby World Cup this year will see a field open to the weather. The stands will be under high roofs that might not offer much cover if the weather turns rough but the facilities behind the crowd should be first class on all reports we have received so far. If the public transport works as promised, the access is easy, security sensible and services ample, the experience should be fine.

Best of all, guests will sense that the place is the authentic Eden Park. The refurbishment has not changed it beyond recognition, the field before them and much of the surroundings have witnessed a wealth of All Black moments. The park, whatever its flaws, is sacred to the game.