The Tauranga Hockey Association is pushing for the council to seek public consultation on providing $600,000 for another hockey turf.
The Tauranga Hockey Centre at Kawaka Street currently has two turfs. Figures provided to the council show hockey is a fast growing sport and demand on the existing facilities exceeds recommended capacity.
The Tauranga Hockey Centre wants to get another turf.
The THA has seen 17 per cent growth in registered players in the last five years and in 2015 there were 2495 registered players in the sub-region.
The THA has seen significant growth in primary school aged community hockey, and this growth is now progressed into secondary school aged community hockey.
Currently 7.5 per cent of Tauranga's 5-15-year-olds are registered hockey players.
An additional 2000 players also use the network each year for training, tournaments and events. This includes use by tournaments such as AIM'S Games and events such as International Hockey - NZ Black Sticks vs Korea and Japan in 2014.
The facility is also used for non-hockey users including BOP Rugby training and WaiBOP Football training and socials summer football.
About 80 per cent of registered players are Tauranga residents and 20 per cent are from the Western Bay of Plenty District.
Sport BOP and the THA say there are no plans for developing other artificial turf facilities in the Western Bay of Plenty in the short to medium term.
The THA wants the Council to lead the investment by contributing $600,000, or a maximum of 25 per cent of the project budget, in 2017/2018 towards the development of facilities at Blake Park to meet existing demand as well as provide sub-regional network capacity until 2022.
The decision for the council is whether to go for public consultation on the addition of $600,000 through the 2016/17 Annual Plan.
The intention is to borrow the money and pay back through rates. Repayments are expect to be about $57,000 a year, over eight years
The city council's reserve management plan for Blake Park provides for the two existing artificial turfs, as well as provision for an additional one and a half turfs to accommodate the anticipated growth of hockey.
A 2010 report commissioned by the city council advises building the additional turf within 5-10 years.
Council supported the THA to renew the two existing artificial turfs by contributing $200,000 towards the $1,400,000 project.
Other key funding providers were TECT $800,000, NZCT $100,000), and the Western Bay of Plenty District Council $50,000.
3 comments
What? Another one!
Posted on 26-01-2016 14:44 | By 1 4 GK
With BVL (owners of the Mount Hot Pools wanting $530K and now THA wanting a minimum of $600K - all from the ratepayers - it's going to be a pretty cut throat Annual Plan process this year isn't it. If THA is having such significant growth, what are they doing with the money that this brings in then? I would hope your Board has a "rainy day" policy with some of its funds and has been building a little nest egg for such projects. Give the ratepayers a break please!
Fast Growing Sport
Posted on 26-01-2016 22:07 | By The Caveman
So should be the player fees. Sorry, invest in your own facilities.
The trough
Posted on 27-01-2016 14:58 | By surfsup
There is only one word the council should be saying to the Hockey assc, and that is a very big NO. The centre has already received $200.000 of ratepayers money as well as $800.000 of tect money and should be looking at private funding, increasing subs or even going to the bank. If 7.5% 0f 5-15 year old are registered hockey players then 92.5% are not. Other sports are crying out from help from the council and are far more deserving than the hockey fraternity. Turfs are available at boys college, Bethlehem college and otumoetai college, how many does the assoc want.
Leave a Comment
You must be logged in to make a comment.