Saints' Auckland time frame up in the air
By Daniel Cherny4 March 2018 — 4:33pm
St Kilda's chances of playing
a match
in New Zealand next season are up
in the air, with the time frame surrounding the Saints’ first match
in Auckland
to be shaped this month by council planning.
St Kilda hope
to resume their trans-Tasman presence, which began with an annual Anzac Day
game in Wellington between 2013 and 2015.
The Saints have since flagged their interest
in playing
a home
game in Auckland, and had initially hoped
to lock it
in this year or
in 2019. No matches were scheduled for 2018, and next season now looks no guarantee.
The reason for the uncertainty is that the proposed
AFL venue
in Auckland – Western Springs Stadium – requires funding for
a reconfiguration that would allow the ground
to host sports including cricket and football.
The venue can currently be used as
a speedway, with
a plan for speedway
to finish at the venue next March.
But
a timeframe on conversion
to a ground fit for
AFL games is dependent on funding, which is being discussed
in Auckland Council’s budget and planning consultation period, which began late last month and runs until March 28. The process is built around developing
a 10-year budget for Auckland, as well as planning for what the city will look like
in 2050.
Auckland Stadiums director Paul Nisbet said the process should provide clarity, but until then he couldn’t offer
a target year for
AFL games
in New Zealand’s biggest city.
“We can’t give
a target year but we are committed
to working with
AFL and St Kilda on
a venue option for Auckland fixtures,” Nisbet told The Age.
“We will know more once we have worked through the planning and council funding process.
“As signalled previously, speedway activity is scheduled
to end at Western Springs
in March 2019. It is our intention
to re-purpose Western Springs, and an oval facility which caters for cricket and other sports such as
AFL is our preferred option.
“This strategy was approved
in 2015 by Auckland Council, with the funding
to be considered
in the current Auckland Council long-term planning process. We are continuing
to talk through timing and venue requirements with the
AFL and St Kilda and are working towards being able
to host
AFL fixtures
in Auckland
in the near future.”
The Saints have continued
to maintain
a presence
in New Zealand even without playing games there, continuing
to hold preseason training camps
in the country. St Kilda have also had
a handful of Kiwi international scholarship players on their books
in recent seasons.
Dashing Saints half-back Shane Savage was born
in New Zealand, moving
to Australia as
a boy.
The club’s chief executive Matt Finnis told the
AFL website last year that
New Zealand had untapped potential as an
AFL market.
"We certainly still consider that as
a potential secondary market, which hasn't been given the full opportunity
to reveal the strength that that can have yet," Finnis said.
The Saints lost all three of their games
in Wellington. The first, against Sydney, drew 22,546, but the next two games drew significantly less: 13,409 and 12,125. The matches were the first home and away games
to be played outside Australia, followed by last year’s
game in Shanghai between Port Adelaide and Gold Coast, who will again meet
in China this year.
St Kilda are just weeks away from moving their headquarters back
to Moorabbin after seven years
in Seaford.
The Saints used Launceston as
a secondary market
in the first half of last decade.
https://www.smh.com.au/sport/AFL/saints ... 4z2rj.html
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