TOO SMALL.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 233, 1 October 1937, Page 9

TOO SMALL.

FOR MAJOR EVENTS.

AUCKLAND SPORTS GROUNDS.

KTTGBY TEST MATCK ECHO.

"The Domain's the place; it has held (if). 000 before."

This was the easy solution of the problem of accommodating the recent Kiiffli.v lest match crowd in Auckland oil ofT-hand by dozens of persons in the city, whowe only interest was to pet in with a minimum of discomfort. I lie Showground was seriously considered for a time, but was found on survey to have disabilities for the purpose, nnd the Western Springs Speedway was talked about less seriously, hventtinlly the persons concerned came bm k to l.den Park, as having the most «de.|uato charging, seating and sicrhtseeinp facilities, and packed in a crowd ost imated at 58.000 strong. "Strong is right," commented a citizen. in discussing the subject to-day. "l "r only the strong could stand the -train that had to be endured on the terraces of standing for three, four and more hours in the crush." Call for Action. "Something should be done about it." he added. .And it should be considered i iglit now, while we have this experience fresh in our minds, so that when the next occasion arises we shan't be confronted with the same old slapping up at the last minute of makeshift arrangements camouflaged as 'accommodation.'"

In support of his contention ho pointed out that fast transport had placed nn entirely new outlook before those who catered f,.r the public that they iii iff lit live it off. In the world, New Zealand lmd been transported nearly 10.000 miles nearer the great centres of ponulation. The same was true of nil other countries. They hal become practically next-door neighbours!, with all the vexations as well as the friendly contacts arising out of such propinquity. Friendly contact through -port was being increasingly recognised <i« a pence-making factor, and internafKjjial championships in nil Bports were licrr.g increasingly fostered. "Where does Eden Park come into that. interrupted someone. "Only on a horrid example on a special occasion such as w e have iust experienced," was the retort. Out-of-Date Attitude. I m not casting aspersions on anyone In particular, but just on the general haphazard method of make shift at the last minute to meet what we call an emergency, but which really was an Inevitable situation, -which we should have seen and provided for months ahead.•

"What T am objecting to. on behalf of myself and the rest of the public, is the old-fashioned country-fair attitude if our sports organisers towards their public, off whom they live." "You pays your money, and you takes your choice," is a very much out-of-date slogan, lie declared. Women jostled out »>f their places and blacked-out of their view at a footbalt match; everybody jam bed together into cramped attitudes and without an earthly chance of obtaining the physical relief essential to being cooped lip for several hours. Those were things which should not be in a properly organised and equipped sports ground. There should be at least reasonable fitting space, adequate facilities and reasonable access to and from those facilities. A Celebration Centre. "What we need in New Zealand is that sort of provision for, say, 80,000 on '•no ground in Auckland, and for 00,000 on a similar ground each in Wellington, (Uristchurch and Dunedin. Domestically, this country has come under the fast transport influence to the extent of making Auckland and Wellington almost like ncighl>ouring suburbs, with Christchurch and Dunedin similarly drawn together. So that, with the growing frequency of and interest in international sporting fixtures—to say nothing of the New Zealand centenary celebrations in three years' time—the need for grounds of the kind is already here.

"This is an age of adjustment as well as of fast transport, perhaps largely because of it," he Continued. "And I am ouro that if the various sports bodies interested in big crowds got together with the municipal heads and the Government folk concerned with the council of sport, they would be able to ■get something done on the lines indicated.

"Of course, the Auckland Domain is one place I don't want to see developed on those lines," he concluded. "Its landscape beauty should not be sacrificed to the commercial side of sport. But on the point at issue I wish to protest strenuously that packing 58.000 people standing up into a ground is not 'accommodating the crowd : it is only irritating it. And to increase the admission fee instead of increasing the accommodation would only add to the aggravation."