Hawke's Bay sports park burnouts damage could force closure of the facility at night, CEO says

One part of a Hawke's Bay sports park will be unusable for months because of the actions of "drop-kicks" doing donuts.

Mitre 10 Park chief executive Jock Mackintosh on Thursday described the actions of those who had torn up the grass of the park's warm up track near the Percival Rd entrance as "30 seconds of lunacy".

The damage will cost about $1500 to fix, the equivalent of a school hiring the athletics track for three days, but the true cost could be to the entire community.

Mackintosh said it was not the first time it had happened - the last major damage occurred in 2018 - and might result in the park being fenced off after hours, affecting those who use it at that time for walking and exercise.

Mitre 10 Park Hawke's Bay CEO Jock Mackintosh says recurring burnouts are "extraordinarily frustrating". Photo / Paul Taylor

Mackintosh said the latest damage was believed to have been caused by burnouts overnight on Tuesday.

He said lots of people would know who caused the damage, and they were offering a $250 reward to anyone with information which led to prosecution of the offenders.

The substantial damage is in an area to be used by the New Zealand athletic championships next year.

It is also used daily by the community and will now be out of action until spring when the grass can grow.

"Thirty seconds of lunacy has put it out of action for several months.

"The drop-kicks who did this are likely to have brothers, sisters or cousins using this facility."

The park has to fundraise about 40 per cent of its operating costs so sports players can pay less to use the facilities. Some of the fundraising dollars will now have to go towards repairing the damage.

Mackintosh said the issue was "extraordinarily frustrating".

"In language that these guys might understand, if I popped round and coined their car, I think they'd be pretty upset by that. Hopefully they can think of this in those terms."

Mackintosh said it would be very difficult to cover the whole park in security cameras, and often such damage happened after dark in unlit areas.