On Tuesday the Waitaki District Council agreed to change its plans for the Network Waitaki Events Centre.
Rather than build four timber-sprung playing courts and two synthetic courts, they instead opted for six timber-sprung courts, at the request of the Network Waitaki Event Centre Project board.
The upgrade will cost $50,000 more and without synthetic courts, tennis could no longer be played at the centre.
In December, the council voted in favour of the original design.
Waitaki Events Centre trust project board representative Adair Craik said the board made the recommendation to reverse that decision based upon new information discovered from similar facilities around the country.
"They all said it has to be timber wooden floors, that’s where the growth of sport is."
They included two letters in support of their request from Sport Otago chief executive James Nation and Edgar Centre general manager Blair Crawford.
Ms Craik said the original decision in December was based on a "significantly old" business and feasibility study.
"Since that time, sports [has] changed completely.
"There’s emerging sports that weren’t even known about when that business case was written [in 2021]."
She used futsal as an example of a fast-growing sport.
The wooden floors would be able to hold a variety of non-sporting events, Ms Craik said.
"We have absolutely no doubt we can run anything in our facility. Anything at all."
Crs Jim Hopkins and Tim Blackler voted against the recommendation while Rebecca Ryan, the current North Otago Tennis president, abstained from voting due to a conflict of interest.
This recommendation received much less support from councillors than the previous design, Cr Hopkins said.
"All the ... [sports representatives] turned up at the council in December and put their cases forward. The council listened and the vote was almost unanimous."
He believed the "greater good" of sport in Waitaki had been overlooked in favour of a select few sports.
"They haven’t, in my view, gone for a solution that would’ve delivered the greatest opportunities for the greatest number and the widest range of ... [sports]."
Cr Hopkins acknowledged that his colleagues outvoted him and respected their decision.
He was unhappy with how North Otago Tennis had been treated during the process.
Leaving tennis out was a decision the board did not make lightly, Ms Craik said.
"No-one felt good about having to get rid of synthetic floors for tennis."
To compensate, they, along with the Waitaki Events Centre Trust, offered to help raise additional funds to provide tennis players with their own facility.
Council acknowledged this offer.
No-one could be contacted from North Otago Tennis yesterday for a comment.
