SoS

Latest News - August 2008

The plans to build a Hilton Hotel on Shed 1 have been thwarted by the
Environmental Court who have seen through the spin to recognize the many
obvious flaws in the Hilton plans. Read all about the decision here. This should
give indoor sports a few more years of life at Shed 1. Plenty of time for WCC
to get there act together you would think to provide decent alternative
facilities? We'll see, but the signs are not promising.

In the meantime, thank you WCC for helping Wellington Indoor Sports lease the
old Golf Warehouse, under the stadium concourse, which is now home to
some of the indoor netball but is too small for soccer and too far away for
those of us in the southern part of the CBD.

SoS has initiated a campaign to get the Ground Floor of Site 10 designated
as a sports venue - see below - with over 600 submissions into the Wellington
Waterfront Plan. The Waterfront Development Subcommittee wanted that
seriously considered, but that Subcomittee has now been scrapped. However,
in mid-May 2008, we did receive this from the CEO of Wellington Waterfront
Limited, Ian Pike:

Further to our recent telephone conversation, Wellington Waterfront Limited
has undertaken "to consider options for relocating the indoor sports activities
that currently take place in Shed 1" - as quoted directly from our 2007-2010
Strategic Plan which was amended, after the Waterfront Development
Sub-Committee meeting of 22 August 2007, at which you and other members
of SoS made your submission.

While Site 10 is certainly an option, we are also mindful of our responsibility to
Council and the wider Wellington community to ensure the best possible
outcome for this site, whether this be in terms of 'commercial' or 'social'
capital. Accordingly, all opportunities, including the sports option, for the use
of the ground floor space/s of this site are being explored. As mentioned,
there are a significant number of considerations to take into account for all
developments on the waterfront, and progress can appear slow.

While site 10 investigations continue, we are also exploring other options for
the continued hosting of indoor sports activities on the waterfront.

We will be in touch with you as soon as we are in a position to update
you further.

Save Our Sport (SOS)

We're a group of individuals that love playing indoor sport within walking
distance of the CBD. That is now under threat from the Hilton Hotel proposals
which will remove Shed 1 and thus the only indoor sports faciliities in the area.
On this web page you can find out all about SoS and what we're doing and why
it's imporant.

Please see the "contact" page for details about us and about how to join our
newsletter.

Ralph, Lyn, Nick, Tom & Anthony

Site 10, SoS Submission Summary to WWL/WCC

The Events Centre was funded with the help of Lottery money under the guise
of it being a "community sport, recreation and entertainment centre" which
would have hundreds of thousands of active sport participants. Since the
Events Centre opened, the people of Wellington have been making some
130,000 visits each year to the waterfront to play indoor sport in WCC owned
facilities. Those sports people have set the lead for people from the City to
venture to the water and they do so all year round and in any kind of weather.
Further, as they pay around $8 each per game, indoor sports has been a
substantial revenue earner for both the operators and WCC.

However, with the imminent demise of Sheds 1 & 6 and with the Events Centre
being now used almost exclusively for non-active participation events, the
waterfront is set to lose one of its major anchor attractions. Additionally, since
space is so limited in the CBD and any new facility has to be within easy
walking distance of the CBD for lunchtime sport, there is a real danger that
Wellington will lose one of its biggest recreation sites and one of the regions
major weapons for fighting poor health, obesity and work-stress.

We believe that Site 10 offers enough space to replicate the facilities being
lost (3 courts), is close enough to the CBD to be a guaranteed success in
attracting very high usage and thus revenues, helps WWL meet its
commitment to have publicly accessible ground floors without saturating the
waterfront with cafes, and, if carefully designed with transparent walls, will
present very attractive and active edges to other waterfront users.

We urge you to earmark the ground floor of Site 10 for indoor sports.