Victoria Park: a test venue for Auckland?

EXCLUSIVE: Wynyard Point consortium advance mini-Melbourne concept near CBD

The Victoria Park cricket concept as viewed from a new grandstand.

A proposal to transform Auckland’s Victoria Park into an international cricket venue has created a buzz among the city’s clubs and has caught the eye of one of the most powerful men in world cricket.

As the test series against Australia continues this week in front of full houses at bespoke test venues in Wellington and Christchurch, Aucklanders are forced to lament a situation that saw the last of Eden Park’s 50 tests played in 2018, with just two tests at the ground in the past decade.

The Victoria Park plan is the work of the group behind the pitch for the 55,000-seater Wynyard Point Stadium and includes drawings by global stadia architectural firm Populous, the company behind projects such as Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, Las Vegas’ Sphere and the world’s largest cricket stadium in Ahmedabad, and backing from ASM Global, which manages more than 350 sporting venues worldwide.

International Cricket Council chairman Greg Barclay said any plan to build a venue capable of hosting white- and red-ball cricket in central Auckland should be embraced by the sport’s leaders.

“The country’s biggest city needs a cricket stadium and it needs it to be done properly,” Barclay, who was New Zealand Cricket chairman when a proposal to repurpose Western Springs as a cricket stadium was stymied, said. “It can’t be a default option.”

Auckland Cricket has resolved to move its operations from Eden Park to Colin Maiden Park at Merton Rd, Glen Innes, much to the chagrin of North Shore and West Auckland clubs and bemusement of many cricket fans.

“Eden Park can pontificate all it likes but it is not ideal for cricket and Merton Road is purely a domestic option, if it is any option at all,” Barclay said.

The ICC chair said New Zealand typically hosts 45 days of men’s international cricket per year and then you have women’s cricket, a revamped Super Smash and major international tournaments on top of that. At the moment, Auckland is in the market for two men’s T20s per year, an unsatisfactory situation for a city that has the biggest population and the largest playing base in the country.

“This is why NZC tried to get Western Springs off the ground and even had a MOU with Regional Facilities Auckland, but it was completely undermined by Auckland Cricket’s determination to remain at Eden Park and, I suspect, by some in council,” Barclay said.

“Getting international cricket back to the city was a consideration that only NZC was interested in. The Auckland Cricket board chose to be disengaged from the process. Merton Road is a domestic solution, not an international one and not one that looks 30 or 40 years into the future.

“Look at what the cricket specific ovals at Mount Maunganui and Hagley Oval have done in terms of making the sport visible in those cities.”

Victoria Park has not been included in the Stadium Working Group pitch, but it is understood to be a key plank in the Wynyard Point consortium’s vision to turn the western fringe of Auckland’s CBD into a “mini-Melbourne” sports and entertainment concept. 

Dellabarca, a former New Zealand Rugby director and consortium principal, said at this stage he would prefer not to comment on any plans for Victoria Park. The consortium has, however, pitched to a number of potential stakeholders, including tenants Grafton United Cricket Club.

GUCC president Stewart Wilson said he was party to the presentation by the consortium and described it as a “no-brainer” for NZC to endorse.

Wilson, who has also been a director of Auckland Cricket and the Eden Park Trust, said it “was the best proposal I have seen by far, and it’s not just my view, it’s widespread”. 

Wilson said the plan would keep GUCC at the park (which is council-owned, as is the land at Wynyard Point), and they would become custodians of the ground, much like Middlesex County Cricket club was at cricket’s most famous venue, Lord’s.

“This would provide Auckland with an international cricket venue close to transport links and accommodation,” he said. “Auckland Cricket could still go to Merton Road, where they can set up a training facility and an indoor school.” 

In the past, Grafton have objected to plans to transform Victoria Park into an international sports venue because they and the public would effectively be shut out of the space. Under the latest proposal, GUCC would stay and the park would remain open to the public. The new stand and facilities would be positioned near the Northern Motorway flyover on a section of the park seldom used.

The Bounce has also spoken to multiple cricket administrators who are across the proposal, but did not have the authority to speak on behalf of their clubs. One club delegate said they also wanted to avoid potential reprisals from the board of Auckland Cricket, some of whom remain bullish about the international potential of Colin Maiden Park.

“It’s not mutually exclusive to what the ACA is planning now,” said one club delegate. “They should not fear this. I love the idea. Everyone I’ve spoken to in cricket loves the idea. How could you not love it?

“New Zealand Cricket should jump aboard this. What an opportunity to get a 15,000-capacity venue into the heart of the city.”

New Zealand Cricket chief executive Scott Weenink declined to comment for this story.

Auckland Cricket believes there is potential to host test cricket at Colin Maiden Park while white-ball cricket remains at Eden Park, but that plan would be moot if the council decides on a new stadium strategy that effectively sidelines Eden Park, which has hosted international rugby and cricket in the city since 1921.

Four proposals have been pitched to an Auckland Council working group set up by Mayor Wayne Brown to determine what’s the best main stadium for the city.

They are Wynyard Point; a revamped 60,000-seat capacity Eden Park; a 70,000-seat, fully enclosed stadium sunk into the Waitemata Harbour; and a stadium precinct at Quay Park, named Te Toangaroa, which is endorsed by NZ Rugby.

The Wynyard Point consortium appears to be the only one to have factored a single-site cricket solution into its thinking.

Public sentiment has shifted sharply away from Eden Park having any future role in hosting cricket. A recent New Zealand Herald editorial highlighted its myriad shortcomings, saying the ground resembled a half tennis court rather than an oval.

“The lengths of the boundaries are also widely viewed as a bit of a joke; the square boundary is 68 metres, while the straight is just 55m and the smallest in the international arena. Its continued hosting of international cricket is thanks to a legacy [clause]...

“What so many cricket fans love to see is for Auckland to have a true cricket venue; one which would see test cricket played in the City of Sails for the first time in six years.”

It is this sentiment that has excited the cricket base in the city, though that also comes with a large dollop of practised caution.

As one club delegate said: “This is Auckland; somebody will find a reason not to get this done.”