A report on the use of the Alexandra park was presented to the Vincent Community Board last week.
The report was penned by Global Leisure Group, which was appointed by the council to undertake a review of the park earlier this year, over its uses and whether undeveloped land at the park’s western end needed to be used.
The report said there were sufficient sports fields now and into the future but questions remained for many sports.
There appeared to be a lot of clubs owning some of the facilities at the park with not a lot of co-ordination.
Individual clubs were asked their thoughts on the park.
Cricket used the park at a club and first-class level, with the Otago Volts and Sparks playing games on the number one ground.
It was described as a high class venue for cricket and was ideal to host tournaments as there were up to seven fields to use.
But there was a worry about season creep for cricket, with football training starting earlier every season.
To improve as a cricket venue it needed better sightscreens, an electronic scoreboard, an indoor training venue and better nets.
Otago Cricket wanted to turn it into a turnkey venue and possibly host more first-class matches but this would only happen if the number one ground became a cricket-only venue, the report said.
Board chairwoman Tamah Alley asked if any analysis had been done on how much the council was paying to prepare the ground and wicket against the economic benefit to the area with the playing of the games.
Council parks and recreation manager Gordon Bailey said it was difficult to say, as games in the past few years had been impacted by Covid restrictions and not as many games had been played. Twenty20 games had been taken away from Alexandra for a period because of a lack of broadcast facilities.
Six games were set to be played at the venue this year and it was a preferred playing venue ahead of Queenstown, Mr Bailey said.
The local population needed to support the venue for it to continue to host games, he said.
He hoped for a good season with more games and better promotion as more cricket returned to free-to-air television.
Netball had eight courts — all outdoors — at the park, which was sufficient. But there was a risk of the courts freezing and there was a desire to have two indoor courts, which would allow the premier game to be played midweek.
Parking was also an issue for netball and there was no guide on where to park.
The Alexandra Rugby Club said the club had struggled to get on the number one field before its season as the ground had to be kept for a late cricket game. It was then kicked off the ground before the end of the season to get the cricket field ready.
The club had the funding to improve its clubrooms and deck, but had to wait to see what was going to happen with the stadium.
Football had just enough parks but it was a squeeze when clubs from all over Central Otago all played at the ground.
The current stadium was not fit for purpose and it took up to two hours to get all the equipment set up.
It was not earthquake compliant and was undersize to meet competition requirements for sports such as basketball.
The board received the report.
