Editorial: Stadium plans cannot be made on logic alone

Eden Park was upgraded for the Rugby World Cup. Photo / Doug Sherring

Proposed changes may make sense, but they don't take into account the emotion of spectators

Sometimes it can be difficult to appreciate what you have got. This seems to have played a part when the council agency Regional Facilities Auckland embarked on a plan to re-allocate venues for the city's major sports events.

Its intention was to bring cost-saving order to the array of stadiums inherited by the Super City. What it has discovered is that sporting fans' preferences defy such rationale - and that most of them appreciate very much what they already have.

Regional Facilities' proposal envisaged comprehensive change. Eden Park would become the home of the Warriors as well as rugby and limited-over cricket. Test cricket would move to Western Springs, where it would replace speedway, which would shift to Mt Smart. The latter would be a high-performance training centre, with North Harbour Stadium, the venue for international soccer and provincial rugby.

All this makes some sense financially. Eden Park does not attract enough events to fill its 50,000 seats, the product of a $250 million upgrade for the Rugby World Cup. Mt Smart, for its part, will need $60 million spent on it if it is to continue as the Warriors' headquarters. But on this issue at least, money is not the most important factor. In the first instance, stadiums are not all about profitability. Ratepayers, by and large, accept that they come at a cost.

Most significantly, sports fans attach a great deal of tradition and sentiment to each stadium. Unless these are hopelessly decrepit, there will always be resistance to a shift to a new location. Western Springs has an 86-year tradition of speedway. And Eden Park will always be associated with rugby, just as rugby league fans relish the greater intimacy of Mt Smart. The followers of both codes would not take kindly to mixing at Eden Park. This was confirmed by the majority of public submissions on Regional Facilities' plan.

And if anything, the fans are appreciating these stadiums more than ever. Public transport to Eden Park has greatly improved access, and it is now fully suitable for the large-scale, if rare, spectacles that require such a venue. And if $60 million has to be spent at Mt Smart, this must set against the value of the final product and the fact that millions would also have to be spent on a new track and other facilities to turn it into a speedway arena, as well as the $20 million to $40 million needed to transform Western Springs into a test-cricket venue.

When Regional Facilities presented its strategy in 2012, the Auckland Council recognised that it would be controversial. It, therefore, called for public submissions.

In sum, 46.9 per cent of the 1069 submitters opposed the proposal, while just 21.5 per cent supported it. The remainder was unsure, a pointer to some of the more cogent aspects of the strategy, such as shifting sparsely attended test cricket from the cavernous Eden Park.

This, however, is a strategy that fails because it pays too little heed to the passion of sports fans. Rationalisation will have to come in a different, more modest guise. Regional Facilities has started by taking North Harbour Stadium under its wing. More events can now be pointed its way. In time it may even come to be appreciated as much as the other stadiums that play their role so well.