The southern Dunedin ground in Victoria Rd looks more like a wildlife pond than a sporting turf following the deluge that hit the city last weekend.
Passers-by hoping to catch a glimpse of sporting action at Tahuna Park's main football ground will be greeted by dozens of seagulls that have made the ponded ground home.
The Dunedin City Council was arranging with Fenz and private facilitators to drain the water as soon as possible, acting parks operations manager, Gareth Jones said.
''If it stays on for a few days it won't be the end of the world for the ground but we don't want it sitting there for more than three or four days.''
Tahuna Park is among eight Dunedin sporting grounds closed by the council at present. Rugby grounds Bathgate Park and Miller Park, football fields Unity Park and Walton Park and the University Oval are all closed.
The Kensington Oval's grounds are closed except for two junior fields, while Logan Park is also closed except for its rugby No4 and football No5 ground, Jones said.
Exactly what effect the raft of closures will have on this weekend's sporting fixtures - which include the return of many junior sports following the school holiday break - is unknown.
Although it was likely the eight grounds would remain closed over the weekend, the DCC was unable to confirm that until further inspections, which could result in some of the facilities being put back into action, were carried out this week, Jones said.
''These are the ones that are really, really wet, so if we get more rain that is forecast on Thursday, probably they will be closed.''
The council plans to keep sporting organisers up-to-date on the status of their grounds.
''We will communicate with the key codes and make sure they are kept updated through this process,'' Jones said.
According to the council, Dunedin's remaining sports grounds have coped well considering the amount of rain which hit the city over the weekend.
''The rest of the grounds, to be honest, have held up pretty well, considering.
''We are actually pleasantly surprised by the state of some of the grounds. It's just these are the ones that are heavily under water and we just don't want people on them because we think it is going to really damage them in the long term.''
The long-term damage done by both the weekend's flooding and the wear and tear from a long wet winter would be fully assessed in the spring, Jones said.
''As we come to spring we will be able to do some extra works on the fields, but at present it is about preserving and making sure of damage limitation on those really wet grounds.''
The parks operations department's post-deluge clean-up has kept staff busy, but his team was coping well with the workload, Jones said
''We have had a number of slips on tracks. We are busy, but we are coping.''
