Greg Taipari: Time to sort out Baypark

It's known as the headquarters of the Bay of Plenty Steamers - but to me it's the drunken aunty nobody want to acknowledge when you're at a family gathering.

To put it bluntly, Baypark Stadium is a disgrace and shouldn't be used for rugby matches. On Saturday, I headed to the ground in excited anticipation of the Steamers' opening match in the 2012 ITM Cup. The weather had obliged, there was a decent size crowd but the grounds ... well to say the ground is Third World would be generous.

You're so far away from the playing field you need binoculars to see what the touch judge is up to, let alone what's happening on the field. Their PA system looks like something out of a 70s show. Large poles dotted around the park (which block your view) with megaphones on top of them sending out the announcer's voice, giving you the impression he may be on Mars rather than down on the field.

After the match it then becomes a mission to find the car. All it would take are signs marking what row you're parked in to stop the masses standing around scratching their heads looking for their vehicle.

The location of the stadium also raises a number of questions. It is situated by one of the busiest roundabouts in Tauranga and has in the past caused headaches for motorists when a big match is being played at the venue.

Now we have the situation where a temporary stand partially collapsed during the Steamers' game on Saturday. What is it going to take before the Bay of Plenty Rugby Union give up the idea of using Baypark as the main venue for the Steamers?

It's ludicrous, embarrassing and now apparently dangerous. Something needs to be done. So what are the alternatives?

Knocking it down and starting again is one option but an expensive one.

Revamping Tauranga Domain is another but using a facility which already has parking problems isn't probably smart either.

What about Rotorua? It has a stadium with grounds many international stars, Ireland's Ronan O'Gara and Benji Marshall to name a few, have said are the best grounds they've played on. But Rotorua crowds are too fickle and won't pre-buy tickets, preferring to wait until the day of the match - which doesn't make it attractive for teams like the Steamers or the Chiefs to base themselves here.

Until we have a stadium of international quality we will never get the opportunity to have the All Blacks play a test here in the Bay of Plenty. Yet we have three Bay of Plenty players (if you include Liam Messam) in the squad. I'm pretty sure they'd love nothing better than to run onto their home turf wearing the silver fern on their chest.