Merry Estate might be best site for Games stadium

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32677, 5 August 1971, Page 24

Merry Estate might be best site for Games stadium

(By

K. J. McMENAMIN)

Although discussions were in camera, the lack of substance in the official after-meeting comments suggests that little progress was made when the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee and the Victory Park Board met last week to discuss the use of Lancaster Park as the Games main stadium.

On Monday, the two groups will meet for a second time, and if a settlement does not at least come within sight it might be time for the Games committee to abandon Lancaster Park and turn to a new site.

The alternatives are the Merry Estate at Kerr’s Reach, and the Addington Show Grounds, but, on the facts available, the Kerr’s Reach property, which was purchased by the Christchurch City Council from the Merry family about 10 years ago, seems the better proposition. The possibility of costs ruling out Lancaster Park has been evident for some time, and the Games organising committee has, quite rightly, looked into alternatives. If a new road is to be taken, more detailed investigations will have to be made, but the idea of developing the Merry Estate has been enthusiastically received in a number of quarters. With its thousands of covered seats, Lancaster Park is still the ideal venue,-but to fit it out for the Games would cost a great deal of money, and if the Victory Park Board insists, as it is entitled to do, that the park be returned to its original condition after the Games, there would be little to show for the expense. FIGURE IMPOSSIBLE There has been much speculation on the cost of upgrading and restoring Lancaster Park, and even now the complexity of the task makes a figure impossible. However, including the socalled “hidden costs”—ticket holders’ rights, rental and

compensation slm might not be far from the mark. If the Games committee’s money-raising is as successful as is hoped, there might be sufficient funds to meet the cost, but spending so much money for a few days of a sport would be hard to justify. It is this which gives the Merry Estate special appeal. The area is big enough to accommodate a Games main stadium, with room left for car parking. The cost of development would be high, but i there is a good starting point in the $200,000 the City Council already has voted towards developing the estate for athletics and men’s hockey.

BIG SAVING The fact that the tartan ; track would not have to be ! [ lifted after the Games, as it 1 would at Lancaster Park, 1 would be a big saving, and the City Council also would ' be relieved of its obligation 'to provide a all-weather ! track on the site. The bulk of the costs ' would have to be borne by the organising committee, but ’ it should be only too happy ' to see the public money it controls put to such worth- ' while use. In addition, the Canterbury Amateur Athletic Centre and the Canterbury Hockey Association would, no doubt, contribute. It would have to be expected that much of the seatting would be temporary, but the stand which would have to be built, and it would need to seat between 5000 and 10,000, would be a perman‘ent asset. Underneath, the

stand could be designed with an eye for conversion into squash courts, or an indoor sports hall (perhaps, the much called for second Cowles stadium), after the Games. ADDITIONAL BUILDINGS

Some additional buildings probably would be needed, but the nearby rowing pavilions might be a starting point for these.

A strong case can be put for switching to the Merry Estate, with the biggest advantage being that the Games would be instrumental in bringing to Christchurch a new first-class sports facility.

Much still can be said in favour of Lancaster Park, but perhaps the words of Sir Herbert Brechin, the chairman of the committee which organised the Games in Edinburgh last year, are worthy of attention. “The only real value of a Commonwealth Games to a city is what the city has after they are over,” he is reported to have said.