WELLINGTON INDOOR SPORTS CENTRE OPENS
Wellington Indoor Community Sports Centre
As one of the largest funders of amateur sport in New Zealand, NZCT is proud to support Wellington’s new Indoor Community Sports Centre which opens this weekend (Saturday 27 August 2011). We believe sport helps grow healthy communities and it’s important Wellington has the necessary sports facilities to enable locals to participate in sport for many years to come.
NZCT chief executive Mike Knell would like to acknowledge the contribution of local NZCT publicans who, by raising funds in their gaming rooms, have made it possible for the trust to support this project:
“Although we fund thousands of grassroots sports clubs every year and will continue to do so, we are also supportive of legacy projects which provide long term, sustainable benefits to a broad range of people,” says Mr Knell. “The Wellington Indoor Community Sports Centre is a jewel in the city’s sporting crown and we are delighted we could help fund this impressive facility.”
The centre will be officially opened at a dawn blessing on Saturday 27 August. Following this, between 10.00am and 3.00pm, members of the public can have a look through the centre during an Open Day.
What did NZCT fund?
NZCT has provided a substantial contribution ($350,000) towards the fit-out of critical sports equipment, including basketball hoops, handball curtains, volleyball nets, futsal and korfball goals, a dividing curtain and electronic scoreboard. NZCT is also providing funding to support the on-going delivery of a ‘Youth in Sport’ programme.
The centre offers many benefits
The centre will greatly improve the playing and training conditions for indoor sports participants at all skill levels. This high quality facility will encourage growth in traditional indoor sports and allow emerging sports to flourish.
The centre will be used by thousands of people throughout the Wellington region. There are 14,000 local school children alone who will use the centre for many of their physical activity programmes. The centre is also expected to bring economic benefits to the city, by enabling even more regional and national sporting events to be held in Wellington.
What’s inside the new sports centre?
Located in Kilbirnie, the indoor sports centre is the equivalent size of 12 fullsize netball courts. The centre boasts the largest area of sprung flooring in New Zealand. As well as netball, the centre will cater for basketball, volleyball, korfball, floorball and handball. It will also be used by athletics and martial arts groups.
The centre has retractable seating for up to 2200 spectators around a ‘show court’. It also has a café, a high performance sports facility, meeting rooms available for hire and office space for local sports codes. The centre has off-street parking for 317 vehicles.
Facts and figures
Total area: 15,800m²
Basement: 4,500m² (car parking)
Ground floor: 12,600m ² (10,000m² sports floor, cafe, changing rooms, storage)
Mezzanine: 3,200m ² (meeting spaces, sports admin, high performance sport)
Max height: 15m
Who will use the centre?
It is estimated 450,000 people will use the stadium each year, with local indoor sports codes making the greatest use of the new facility. In fact, such is the demand for indoor court space, even before it opens the new sports centre has been fully booked by sports codes during peak hours (after 4.00pm weekdays and during the weekends).
[photo courtesy Neil Price, WCC]
