ATHLETIC PARK STAND

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 300, 19 September 1928, Page 10

ATHLETIC PARK STAND

THREE TIMES SIZE OF BASIN PAVILION “Next Saturday will'be the last time we will invite the public to sit m the Athletic Park stand,” said Mr. J. Prenileville, chairman of the Wellington Rugby Union, at last night’s gathering of the Berhampore Club, "and by the next Saturday I hope that it will be well on the way to the 'old men’s home.’ ” "When it was erected thirty-live years a-'o it was looked upon as a very big thing. In those days we had to rely on Newtown Park for the big matches, and you all know that is not an ideal ground, but it was worse in those days, when it was principally clay. I remember playing on it in the early ’nineties, when it was a rough and muddy ground. "The new stand is estimated to cost about £24,000, and we have in hand about £7OOO. We were fortunate in getting £2500 from the New Zealand Union on secoud mortgage. We have a lirst mortgage of £14,000, and this will cost £l9OO a year for interest and sinking fund. This will “ tidy burden ou future management coijnnittees to keep up. The stand will have six dressing rooms, shower baths, and all conveniences, and two shallow plunge baths, 12ft. by 12ft.. with a depth of oft. 6in. lhe stand will be a single-story structure, not a "double decker.” The first row of seats will be live feet above the ground, and the stand itself will be approximately three times the size of the Basin Reserve Pavilion The depth is practically the same as the Basin Reserve, and we have been fairly successful in practically eliminating a bugbear to spectators, as there will onlv be six posts on the 460 feet.” In justifying the erection of such a large structure the speaker said, every ten years saw an increase in the city’s population equal to the size of Palmerston North, and twenty-live years would see the population of Wellington close to LOO.OOO. As the population grew, so did the number of Rugby players. In 1919 the union controlled 65 teams and 30 school teams, and now it held jurisdiction over 188 teams and over 60 school teams.