Ken Crosson: Sport belongs in city centre

Auckland is in a unique position. New Zealand will host the 2011 Rugby World Cup and Auckland has been earmarked to host a number of games including the final. A new stadium will be built.

Eden Park was a good ground for sport when people largely walked to the game from home, but times have changed. Sport is now part of the entertainment, hospitality and social fabric of the city. It is time to adopt a 21st-century view of how people use a modern stadium and its contribution to the city, and not add to a facility that is in the wrong place.

The Eden Park stadium fails on almost all urban design criteria. It is in the wrong location for public or private transport. Its scale is inappropriate for a fine-grained Victorian suburb. It has no easy connection to entertainment and hospitality facilities and it does not have the capability for constant use due to its restrictive resource consent conditions.

We are a fanatical rugby nation, renowned for success in this sporting code. New Zealand needs a purpose-built venue that can truly be identified as the nation's home of rugby.

Eden Park is not a rugby facility. It is a cricket facility that can be adapted to accommodate rugby. Imperative to attending a live sporting event is the ambience that the crowd-to-playing field intimacy invites.

Eden Park cannot compete with purpose-built grounds such as Cardiff's Millennium Stadium, or Brisbane's Suncorp Stadium, which have seats as close as 6m from the sideline. (At best, the main ASB stand at Eden Park is 14m away, and worse still, approximately half of one side of the Suncorp Stadium's stand would fit within the distance from the sideline to the bottom rows of seats in Eden Park's south stand.)

The major problem with Eden Park is that it has to contend with its suburban context. It has consent for only 16 night-time events a year. An ideal area for a purpose-built stadium is in the CBD. It should cater for rugby, soccer, rugby league, and other sports that require a stadium of this size.

A new stadium on the western reclamation, for example, would cater for other typically urban-based functions such as conventions and conferences, hospitality and entertainment, memorabilia and museums.

With thoughtful planning of subsidiary facilities, a stadium has the ability to activate an urban environment more than any shopping mall ever could. It would also have the potential to regenerate the surrounding area and provide an iconic building promoting Auckland and New Zealand. Think back to how the America's Cup development leveraged the Viaduct and our national image.

All too often, additional outset costs are not weighed against future revenue opportunities. A new stadium must be able to cater for concerts, conventions and be available 360 nights a year. The rates burden for a facility that can only be used for a handful of nights a year is impractical and irresponsible.

It does not seem sensible to pull down half of a perfectly suited cricket ground, and redevelop it as a facility that is a compromise for the two disciplines. Particularly so when it is projected to cost $340 million simply to increase the capacity by 12,500 seats.

Venues such as Cardiff's Millennium Stadium were catalysts for urban regeneration. This could be just the incentive required to see the Tank Farm regeneration begin and Auckland's transport issues dealt with.

As NZRU Chairman Jock Hobbs has mentioned, while the focus is on meeting the World Cup requirements, "the tournament also presents the Auckland Region with a significant opportunity to enhance and upgrade key infrastructure including stadia, transport, and hospitality facilities."

The bones of the infrastructure in the CBD are there, with good connection from the North Shore bus-ways, the Britomart train station and the ferry terminal. This location is close to the restaurants of Ponsonby, Jervois Rd, Karangahape Rd and the Viaduct, and hotels and shopping. Should it be necessary, an underground parking building could be built under Victoria Park.

Have we got the time? The answer is yes and Brisbane has shown the way. Suncorp Stadium was completed in a little over three years. While Australia doesn't have our Resource Management Act, we have five years to implement a similar project.

New Zealand is fixated with adapting facilities as needs arise. However, there comes a point where the value of a resource is expended in light of new demands.

Now it the time for New Zealand to stamp its identity as a leading rugby nation and create a new, purpose-built stadium.

* Ken Crosson is an architect and a member of the NZ Institute of Architects Urban Issues Group.