Negotiations with a party outside Dunedin have been progressing well, New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame chairman Stuart McLauchlan confirmed.
"To date, this party have delivered on everything they said they would," Mr McLauchlan said at the organisation’s annual meeting yesterday.
"They are moving very quickly."
The hall has been located at the Dunedin Railway Station since 1999, but the site is no longer considered a suitable long-term home and the trust has been reviewing alternative options.
The Dunedin City Council decided in September last year to stay out of an expressions-of-interest process that attracted four valid bids - from Auckland, Waikato, Christchurch and Invercargill - and the field has since been narrowed to one.
Mr McLauchlan said a period of due diligence with that party had been extended to the end of this month.
He and hall of fame chief executive Ron Palenski had been talking to the interested party weekly.
Mr McLauchlan said the hall of fame could have "a very good landing" that would secure its future.
"It will be a very good facility, if they deliver."
The proposed facility would have interactive and digital elements and it could take two years to build.
Mr McLauchlan did not provide hints about the region involved, but the Otago Daily Times understands Cambridge, near Hamilton, is the front-runner to host the hall.
Dunedin would need those negotiations to go awry to be back in the running.
The city could keep hosting the hall until a new facility opened.
Sports graphics entrepreneur Sir Ian Taylor said Dunedin had done a remarkable job of squandering the head start it had been afforded by Sir Eion Edgar bequeathing $500,000 to develop a renowned attraction in the city, followed up by Forsyth Barr adding $200,000 to the cause.
He took aim at the city council for what he described as a lack of proactivity.
"I know the council didn’t do anything to encourage looking at it," Sir Ian said.
He suggested Dunedin had failed to get its act together.
"If there’s an opportunity to be lost, a whole lot of people are lining up to lose it," Sir Ian said.
City councillor Andrew Whiley said the hall’s importance in Dunedin had been undervalued.
"I think it’s a big failure by our council to support and advocate and do everything we can to keep it here," he said.
"We’ve failed the sports hall of fame and the community in Dunedin. As a council, we could have done much, much better."
No councillors at the September meeting, including Cr Whiley, voted to be involved in the expressions-of-interest process.
Cr Whiley had reflected on that.
"We voted based on what we knew and the information we were given by staff," he said.
The Edgar family’s representative on the Dunedin Indoor Sports Venue Trust Board, Alan McKenzie, was dismayed the city seemed to have let an opportunity pass it by.
"This was a one-off opportunity to retain a national museum," he said.
Cambridge, which has a population of about 20,000 people, hosts the national cycling centre of excellence and Rowing New Zealand’s high-performance centre.
Waipa District Council chief executive Garry Dyet said the council had received a submission to its annual plan concerning the suggested relocation of the hall to Cambridge.
Waipa Mayor Jim Mylchreest said he expected the proposal would fit in well with the district’s Home of Champions brand.
The council had yet to adopt any position on the proposal.
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Comments
This is an abhorrent wasted opportunity from our moronic council YET AGAIN!
Gifted monies, etc etc.
Yet too busy worrying about rainbow crossings, and ignoring democracy on 3 waters.
Hawkins MUST GO!
Gutless of Whiley to throw staff under the bus. Councillors make the decisions at the end of the day, not staff.
If there was a will to keep the hall here, the fifteen people around that table would have done it.
I am really sad to see this go elsewhere. It is a shame that the city council is not pro-active about this.
Does this council really support growth in Dunedin? They certainly don't show any evidence of it.