Wynne Gray: Finding the space to celebrate legends

Artist Natalie Stamilla with her model of Michael Jones. The cardboard cut-out to the left is to indicate scale. Photo / Greg Bowker

It is a tale of two Michaels, a story of rapid choice and indecision, a case of tacky and appropriate.

We are talking here about Michael Jackson and Michael Jones, whose statues will adorn famous sports arenas this year.

Now just in case you are confused about my view, I'm all in favour of sporting stars having their names linked to sports grounds in all sorts of ways.

Too often we tuck those legends away in libraries and personal memories instead of having them on public display.

Statues, grandstands, entrance ways, after-match rooms and wall plaques commemorating those legends could all enrich New Zealand grounds of long-standing sporting history.

For some reason we have few stadiums carrying much recognition of the nation's sporting greats.

Is that a carry-over from the humble, colour-free persona demanded of our sports stars before the age of television?

New Zealand should be celebrating their deeds far more, particularly in the arenas where they shone.

The ground staff at Eden Park are so sharp these days they could even mow different names into the turf depending on the fixture.

They would I'm sure, do nothing to emulate the scenes this week as Ravin' Craven Cottage paid homage to Michael Jackson.

Why a singer, with no sporting allegiance other than a suspect fondness for juvenile tiggy, deserves to have his statue outside Fulham soccer club is only understood by the club's owner Mohamed Al Fayed.

Across this side of the world, Eden Park will have Jones' statue in place for the seventh World Cup and beyond.

Finally - after 25 years prevarication since the first World Cup where Jones' global reputation was born, and an unfortunate ground revamp when the city missed the chance to shift rugby downtown to connect to Auckland central.

We are stuck with the stadium, so authorities should contemplate how best they can honour the ground's history.

There should be recognition of the ground's origins sited somewhere in public instead of in the museum in the bowels of the stadium. Perhaps a Walk of Fame or a Wall of Fame, now that the new grandstand and surrounds have been finished. There's plenty of room.

Latterly, the ground has been most strongly associated with rugby and cricket but through the years, Eden Park has been connected to athletics, hockey, league and gridiron.

All those codes and the administrators who've overseen the Eden Park Trust Board could be acknowledged.

There would be endless candidates from Fred Allen to Sean Fitzpatrick, Merv Wallace to Martin Crowe, Harold Nelson to Yvette Williams, George Rainey and Mark Graham, Ron Don, and perhaps even John Minto.