New Zealand Community Trust is pleased to announce a grant of $25,019.59 to the Taranaki Community Stadium Trust. This funding will go towards covering the cost of ziptrack blinds at both ends of the veranda so it is fully enclosed and repairing the perimeter fence, as well as maintaining lighting towers, a plumbing and lighting upgrade to the outside toilets, replacing the surface of the changing room corridor, and adding an internal glass security door to divide the hockey offices from the medical room.
Taranaki Electricity Trust (TET) Operations Manager Loryn Kazianis commented, “ We are hosting five Mitre 10 cup games with a crowd capacity of 4,500, as well as the Colgate Games, a national athletics event for 2021.”
In addition to hosting the Taranaki Bulls' home games for the Mitre 10 Cup for the next couple of years, and the North Island Colgate Games for the second year running, the Taranaki Community Stadium will also hold the NZ Masters Athletics in February 2021. It has also just had confirmed that New Zealand and Australia have been successful in their bid for the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup, of which the stadium is an approved training venue for the tournament.
TET previously granted funding for improvements to the facility for these national events. However, some of the items ran over budget by about $15k as a result of Covid, in addition to a shortfall in the total amount required to complete the list of projects. Without the additional support of the NZCT, the Trust would not have been able to secure the financial reserves necessary to complete this work.