Redevelopment may morph into sports hub

Tennis Otago chairman John Alexander.PHOTO: GREGOR RICHARDSON
Tennis Otago chairman John Alexander. PHOTO: GREGOR RICHARDSON
Tennis Otago wants to change plans mid rally.

Stage 1 of the long-awaited redevelopment at its courts in Logan Park is well under way.

It involves the reconstruction of eight courts, establishing some new fencing, walkways and seating, and resurfacing two courts.

Stage 2 is set to start next year, but Tennis Otago wants to make some significant changes.

Chairman John Alexander told the Otago Daily Times there was an opportunity to create a multisport hub at the location and there was a lot of support from the sporting community, he said.

The Otago Cricket Association is very keen to build a centre of cricket excellence at the venue.

Sport Otago has long been preaching the merits of sports hubs and the benefits to be reaped from shared facilities and a more co-ordinated approach.

Harbour Rugby Club is keen to relocate somewhere more central and Logan Park fits the bill. Unipol, Otago Hockey and Football South have also expressed interest in what is just a proposal at this stage.

"If you want to make the best use of this space, and have a better pavilion that caters for a number of sports and not just tennis, then I think there is definitely scope to do something different down there than what we’ve planned," Alexander said.

"If other people are interested in making this really work then we’d definitely hold off forging ahead with stage 2 until such time as we’ve got some agreement from everybody on what they want to do down there."

Alexander said there was a "a lot of duplication" at Logan Park and by consolidating the sporting codes into a single sports hub there was some savings and gains to be made through greater co-operation.

Under the proposal, the tennis club house and squash club will be demolished and replaced by two tennis courts.

The cricket centre of excellence, which has tentatively been pencilled in for the Harbour Terrace side of the facility (the grey area in the graphic opposite), would be shifted to courts 19 and 20 and the two grey courts to the left.

A sports hub would be built on courts 17 and 18 and the car park would be extended into court 16.

The row of courts from 11 to 15 would be extended to give a total of 12 courts in that row, six of which could be floodlit multi-sport courts.

It is an ambitious plan and would be costly. But Alexander believes it would be making optimal use of the land.

Tennis Otago has commissioned a concept drawing which it hopes will be ready next week.

"Our vision is to have 20 courts still. But we can move around the parts and still make it work.

"We can bring up the idea of a sports hub, but it is not really our position to drive it. It is really Sport Otago or the DCC [Dunedin City Council] who have to do that."

 

Add a Comment