The Māori All Blacks or Super side the Hurricanes could play on the new-look Rugby Park next season as a multimillion-dollar revamp continues at Poverty Bay’s rugby fortress.
This great news for rugby and sports fans has been suggested as a possibility by Poverty Bay Rugby Football Union (PBRFU) chairman Hayden Swann as the Rugby Park redevelopment project - originally announced by the Labour Government in 2020 - must be contractually completed by the end of this year.
Swann said everything at Rugby Park was “taking shape” and the union was looking at a special match to launch the new-look park in 2026.
It was to Poverty Bay’s advantage there would be two Tairāwhiti men – Doug Jones and Greg Barclay – on the new board of New Zealand Rugby, he said.
Currie Construction projects manager Mark van Wijk said the project was on target.
“There is progress. Work on stage one is nearing completion with work due to begin soon on stage two, which is the main grandstand works. Demolition is completed on the grandstand.
“The rebuild proper is due to start around February-March,” van Wijk said.
Stage one includes the installation of ground drainage, water tanks, and creating embankment bleacher seats in front of the grandstand, a new dugout facility, and a new “Rolls-Royce” pitch similar to that at Waikato Stadium.
Swann said new PBRFU offices situated behind the grandstand had been completed and were being used by staff.
Stage two involves the replacement of the grandstand seating and a changing rooms fit-out.
Swann said he was absolutely thrilled with the project.
“Every week I go to Rugby Park and check on the progress. Everything looks like the pictures [digital images] we have been given. It fills my heart with joy.”
Swann said Poverty Bay would play Heartland Championship fixtures at Rugby Park this season, but would use changing facilities in the referees’ rooms, which were also being redeveloped.
Club football would not return to Rugby Park in 2025, he confirmed.
The original project funded by Crown company Crown Infrastructure Partners as a “shovel-ready” project and part of the Government’s Covid-19 recovery plan was costed in 2020 at $8 million.
That had increased to $12.5m with much of the increase being attributed to discovering a lot of ground remediation work was required and that, because of the high water table, the pitch would also need to be raised.
Swann said the new Rugby Park would need higher-quality lighting, but that did not fit the criteria to gain Government funding.
The lights would cost $700,000.
All funding had been sourced from outside the district except for smaller items such as Trust Tairāwhiti funding the new gates at the Childers Road entrance.
It was possible, but not definite, that Trust Tairāwhiti could fund the lights, Swann said.
A presentation had been made to the trust and the meeting had been “amicable”.
Early last year Swann said the new-look Rugby Park would be the best venue in Heartland provincial football.
Since then, the South Canterbury union has opened its newly developed Fraser Park featuring a hybrid playing surface, new pavilion, new grandstand seating, bench seating, landscaping and a wrap-around embankment for families.
Swann said he stood by his opinion expressed last year.
