Twelve courts were affected by water — some became usable later in the day — forcing 20 games to be cancelled, 10 games to be moved to other courts and one had a delayed start.
Leaks at the Edgar Centre are not new — the Otago Nuggets had to move a game against the Southland Sharks in 2021 — but the cancellations were the latest dampener which has left Dunedin Netball general manager Lee-Anne Anderson seeking action.
She was disappointed to cancel the most games since Dunedin Netball started playing at the Edgar Centre due to the health and safety hazard.
"It is absolutely gutting to have to do that when people have already turned up to the court," Anderson said.
"For 390 people to be impacted in a really short space of time, that is significant.
"We all know what the benefits of playing sport are, right? It’s good for your health and wellbeing, it’s great for your fitness and being part of a team.
"We’re trying to promote that, and trying to promote a healthy active environment for people to participate, but pretty tough when you haven’t got the facilities to be able to do that."
Issues had been ongoing, and while they had been able to deal with some courts being compromised in the past, playing numbers increased this year — "fantastic for the sport" — adding to the courts required.
Anderson praised the Edgar Centre staff who worked tirelessly to try to solve the issues and arrived early to help.
She understood the problems affected a wide cross section of the community, and wanted to see something done, whether that was remedial work or replacing the roof.
There were also concerns as the centre will host the national under-18 championships next month.
Edgar Centre manager Blair Crawford said the centre was disappointed the facilities’ issues impacted various sports.
"We’re frustrated too.
"We’re a little bit helpless in terms of what we can do to fix it when we have these situations."
They continued to work with the Dunedin City Council, who owns the facility, and while repairs were made above the wooden courts, the rest of the building required ongoing repairs which were not in the budget.
"That rainfall we got on Saturday was exceptional. That found every leak that we had to an extreme."
The Edgar Centre was identified earthquake prone in 2016, and strengthening upgrades were completed in 2020. Urgent roof repairs above the A grade wooden floors were undertaken in 2022.
The facility, which is no longer considered earthquake prone, sits on reclaimed land and is affected by uneven land settlement, tidal movements and condensation.
A council spokesman said building’s ongoing movements result in new leaks, of which more than 20 occurred last weekend.
"The Edgar Centre is a key sports facility for our city, and we acknowledge these sorts of disruptions are frustrating for everyone concerned," the spokesman said.
"There is no single solution or simple answer, but we work hard to respond to new leaks and repair them as quickly as possible."
The facility needed a new roof and a venue-wide mechanical ventilation system, but it was estimated to cost more than $15million and the council required more information regarding investment into multi-sport facilities.
Work to improve the ventilation in the main arena is scheduled for next month to help address condensation, but challenges would remain, the spokesman said.
Sport Otago has prepared a regional spaces and places plan, looking at population growth and sport participation trends in Dunedin, and the council was using it to guide its future strategic plan for sports facilities, the spokesman said.
