The Waitaki District Council is to consider building a $1 million "Sports House" at Whitestone Contracting Centennial Park as a focal point for sports in the Waitaki district.
On Wednesday, the council will consider a proposal from the Centennial Park users' group to help fund the building and have it ready by September next year for the Golden Oldies rugby tournament, which is being run at the same time as the Rugby World Cup.
That would involve the council lending $109,000 from its own sources and obtaining a $667,000 grant from the Lottery Grants Board community facilities fund.
The rest - $333,000 - would come from fundraising.
The proposal is for rental income from the proposed Sports House - envisaged as next to the North Otago Hockey Turf and Waitaki No 1 ground - to service the council's loan.
The proposal comes after about 30 years of discussions and various suggestions to upgrade facilities at Centennial Park, which the council wants to see developed as the centre for sports in the district.
The Sports House proposal is the latest, and was formed after a meeting in May with sports associations, including Sport Waitaki which would be located there.
The two-storey complex would be for sports competition and tournament administration, sports development and the sharing of resources and knowledge.
It is intended it would also benefit non-sporting use of the park.
There has been a long-standing issue with the standard and location of facilities at the park - public toilets and changing rooms - particularly for the hockey turf to stage club, regional and national tournaments.
Apart from the Excelsior and Athletic clubrooms, the only changing facilities are under the main stand at the park's oval.
Sports House would make those facilities available to all park users.
It would also have multipurpose rooms available as offices for administration and delivery of competitions and tournaments.
It was intended Sports House would bring groups together and achieve efficiencies by sharing space, overheads and information.
Some sporting codes would use it as a permanent office base, others to get access to services.
A viewing area on the second floor would cover the hockey turf, oval and No 2 ground.
The proposal suggested the council should own Sports House and be ultimately responsible for its financial sustainability.
