Plea for new sports centre

A group of Queenstown cricket enthusiasts calling for a new multi-purpose sports centre, including an indoor cricket training facility, could get a hearing under the council’s long-term plan.

According to John Browne, Queenstown suffers from a lack of indoor facilities, especially during cold winters, especially as the events centre is often fully booked.

“Many people in this city want to continue exercising in winter.

“Not everyone wants to go skiing, or can afford it, and that’s just the favorite winter activity” — aside from skating and ice hockey.

A new stadium, he says, could accommodate netball and basketball, indoor football, futsal and indoor cricket – “for young and old, social and serious”.

Browne, a former New Zealand squash champion, also says the squash courts at the city’s Recreation Ground are “terrible” and locals don’t always want to go to the CBD.

As for the location of the new facility, he suggests the proposed Ladies Mile subdivision.

Angela Spackman, a member of the Otago Country cricket board and mother of promising teenage cricketer Hugo Bogue, says “there is talk across the district about the need for indoor facilities”.

“Our closest one is actually in Invercargill, but our guys go to Dunedin in the winter to train.

“If we want cricket to grow and sustain in Queenstown we need an indoor facility.

“I’m sure there are national and international teams that want to come to Queenstown for a training camp, but because there are no indoor facilities, they can’t book a two-week training camp if they can’t guarantee that training can take place.”

Like Browne, she is pleased that it will become part of a multi-functional building.

Simon Battrick, the council’s community services manager, confirmed that a four-pitch indoor centre, at the current Events Centre stadium, is part of a draft masterplan included in the council’s long-term plan and is currently out for consultation.

He says $42 million has been allocated, but the facility itself could cost between $24 and $28 million. The rest will go towards new parking, a new access from Grant Rd, around the back of the event centre and new sports fields.

In what he calls a “win-win situation,” that access could instead be delivered by the Alliance and NZUP, which plan to use an events centre precinct as a landing stage for their traffic improvement program, including the BP roundabout.

Battrick says options for the new indoor centre include two or three additional indoor cricket courts, squash courts and a movement centre/gymnasium.

“There are a lot of options that we say, look, these are nice extras if we can afford them.”

He adds that the council has already set aside $250,000 for the design and that he hopes to put a tender document out for it in about two weeks.