North Harbour Stadium no longer fit for purpose following Tuatara's liquidation

The venue was built in 1997 and got plenty of use in its early years, with the North Harbour Rugby team then attracting big crowds, the Blues playing a game there every year, plus it was used for other rugby games, including during the 2011 Rugby World Cup, for which a large broadcast centre was built.

It was also the home for the New Zealand Knights football team and other big sporting events.

But over the years its usage was reduced, with Mt Smart Stadium and Eden Park picking up more fixtures and when it is used, it’s usually for sporting events that won’t attract much of a crowd.

The arrival of the Tuatara, who had 20 home games a season, did breathe new life into the facility and $2 million was spent knocking down a stand to accommodate a baseball diamond.

However, with the ABL team having gone into liquidation, North Harbour Stadium’s usage will drop to just a handful of fixtures a year and unloved by the people who do go there.

Despite more housing being built around the Albany area, North Harbour Stadium has always struggled to attract crowds and the venue was given the nickname ‘The Stadium of Echos’ by players in the North Harbour Rugby team.

With attendances around the country for NPC games continuing to dwindle, North Harbour Stadium is becoming unsuitable for the provincial union.

“It’s a viable venue for the organisation. It’s got great facilities in terms of infrastructure and seating,” North Harbour Rugby Union CEO Adrian Donald said.

“But that said, under the current way it’s managed, it is difficult in terms of overarching costs to host games here.

“You’re required to put a large amount of security and things calls receivables and that makes it a pretty costly experience.

“How you manage that moving forward, I don’t know. But the reality is, societal pressures have diminished live sport, due to broadcasting and the like.

“People watch live sport on TVs or mobile phones, so we’ve seen diminishing crowd numbers for all sports, unless it’s for national teams.

“So that’s the challenge. Is North Harbour Stadium fit for purpose? Probably not, the capacity is 17,500 people after the disastrous removal of the seats [for the Tuatara].

“Ideally, if you gave us a blank canvas, you’d want a smaller boutique stadium like you see in the UK, of 8000 capacity that was multi use for sports played on a rectangular field, such as football, rugby and league.

“But with that, making sure we can also manage some of the costs. So ensuring we don’t have massively high rental charges to use it and the catering, beverage and hosting is able to be offered up in a more user-friendly environment.”

Due to North Harbour Stadium being used as a warm-up venue for the Fifa Women’s World Cup, North Harbour are locked out of the venue for their first two NPC games this season and will have to return to their spiritual home of Onewa Domain.

There have been issues with the council about North Harbour moving back there and currently it’s only for this year, but the day could be coming when the rugby union also quits the Stadium.

“We’re fully engaged with the council and Auckland Stadiums around finding a better offering,” Donald said.

“North Harbour Stadium was completed in 1997. Is it fit for purpose in the modern day? No.

“The land it sits on is valued at around $180 million. The Auckland Council has got a massive hole in its budget, so why can’t we look at it differently and build a stadium that’s fit for purpose, for the rate payer?”

“Would we look to go to Onewa? It’s about bringing it back to the grassroots and giving that experience,” Donald added.

“For us to open the stadium and have games here, we certainly need to have bigger crowd attendances and sport to justify it.

“We’ve got to look at venues which are viable and creating ambience.

“We are looking forward to going to Onewa Domain and having that experience, it is the spiritual home of North Harbour Rugby, however, we’ve got to be mindful that we can offer our patrons and people coming along to the game an experience where they can get an all-weather seat under cover and good food and beverage offerings.”

Having the Tuatara play at North Harbour Stadium didn’t work out well for Auckland Stadiums, which is a part of Auckland Council’s Tātaki Auckland Unlimited.

As well as the money spent reconfiguring the venue, Auckland Stadiums is also owed money by the Tuatara and unlikely to get much of it back.

But director of Auckland Stadiums, James Parkinson doesn’t feel it was a mistake to let the Tuatara in.

“There were decisions made at the time to enable baseball,” Parkinson said.

“They were well considered and the intention there was to provide a new pathway for the venue, to give it a level of viability.

“Prior to baseball in any given year you had five games of NPC rugby, a couple of games of domestic football and maybe a Blues game and that was the extent of the sports content at the stadium.

“There’s no stadium in the world that can be sustained with that level of content, so there was a definite need to explore other options, but circumstances have played out where it hasn’t worked out the way it was hoped.

“But I don’t accept that because of that the original intent was a flawed one.”

North Harbour Stadium was used for game against the Blues last year, but it wasn’t played in front of any spectators due to the red light Covid restrictions in place then.

The last time the Blues played in Albany in front of spectators was in 2019, when they defeated the Sunwolves and Donald would like to see the Super Rugby team make another trip over the bridge.

“I’ve been in my role 16 months and our relationship with the Blues is better than it’s been for a long period of time,” he said.

“We’re in discussions with the Blues, Andrew Hore (CEO) and his management about trying to bring games to North Harbour Stadium.

“We are an 18% stakeholder owner in the Blues. We talk about the Blues region, painting it blue and being Northland, North Harbour and Auckland.

“I think it’s a great opportunity to bring rugby to North Harbour, with a good opposition.

“What people don’t want is an also ran game where it’s an afterthought. But if there was a half decent game of Super Rugby at North Harbour Stadium, I’m sure the wider punter would come along to support it.”

Auckland’s issue is it has too many stadiums of a similar size spread out across the city and none of them getting used to the same extent as Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane or Melbourne’s AAMI Park.

There is a consortium looking at building a 70,000 seater stadium on Auckland’s waterfront, while there are also plans to upgrade Eden Park to a 60,000 capacity stadium which has a roof.

Ultimately the city needs to sort out what network of venues best suit it and whether there is a future for not only North Harbour Stadium, but also Mt Smart Stadium.

Talks need to be held with the Blues, Auckland and North Harbour rugby teams, the Warriors, Moana Pasifika, any future Auckland A-League team as well as New Zealand Cricket about what they want.

Tātaki Auckland Unlimited has been in discussions with Eden Park about developing a plan for a single operator for Auckland's four major stadiums by 1 July 2023.

Whether that happens or not, the future for one of the country’s newest stadiums looks bleak.