“There is progress. Work on stage one is nearing completion with work due to begin soon on stage two, which is the main grandstand works. Demolition is completed on the grandstand.
“The rebuild proper is due to start around February-March,” van Wijk said.
Work continues on the multimillion-dollar redevelopment of Rugby Park.
Photo / Wynsley Wrigley
Stage one includes the installation of ground drainage, water tanks, and creating embankment bleacher seats in front of the grandstand, a new dugout facility, and a new “Rolls-Royce” pitch similar to that at Waikato Stadium.
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Swann said new PBRFU offices situated behind the grandstand had been completed and were being used by staff.
Stage two involves the replacement of the grandstand seating and a changing rooms fit-out.
Swann said he was absolutely thrilled with the project.
“Every week I go to Rugby Park and check on the progress. Everything looks like the pictures [digital images] we have been given. It fills my heart with joy.”
The Rugby Park grandstand – built in haste to host the 1965 Springboks after the original grandstand was destroyed by fire – faces imminent replacement by a new facility.
Swann said Poverty Bay would play Heartland Championship fixtures at Rugby Park this season, but would use changing facilities in the referees’ rooms, which were also being redeveloped.
Club football would not return to Rugby Park in 2025, he confirmed.
The original project funded by Crown company Crown Infrastructure Partners as a “shovel-ready” project and part of the Government’s Covid-19 recovery plan was costed in 2020 at $8 million.
That had increased to $12.5m with much of the increase being attributed to discovering a lot of ground remediation work was required and that, because of the high water table, the pitch would also need to be raised.
Swann said the new Rugby Park would need higher-quality lighting, but that did not fit the criteria to gain Government funding.
The lights would cost $700,000.
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME. A section of Gisborne’s Rugby Park grandstand roof in in the process of being removed in November of last year.
All funding had been sourced from outside the district except for smaller items such as Trust Tairāwhiti funding the new gates at the Childers Road entrance.
It was possible, but not definite, that Trust Tairāwhiti could fund the lights, Swann said.
A presentation had been made to the trust and the meeting had been “amicable”.
Early last year Swann said the new-look Rugby Park would be the best venue in Heartland provincial football.
Since then, the South Canterbury union has opened its newly developed Fraser Park featuring a hybrid playing surface, new pavilion, new grandstand seating, bench seating, landscaping and a wrap-around embankment for families.
Swann said he stood by his opinion expressed last year.
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The post Gisborne’s revamped Rugby Park could host Māori All Blacks or Hurricanes in 2026 first appeared on Rugby 247.
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Author : rugby-247
Publish date : 2025-01-13 22:16:07
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