28 | Hawke’s Bay: Rodney Green Arena T T Sue Russell Stunning new arena a win for community The multi-million dollar new Rodney Green Foundation Arena at Taradale, Hawke’s Bay, opened in February. REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT PROUD TO BE PART OF THE PGA DEVELOPMENT TO DISCUSS YOUR NEXT PROJECT EMAIL ADMIN@BEM2012.NZ Proud to be chosen as the Structural Steel contractor for the Pettigrew Green Arena expansion A new multi-million dollar sports arena at Taradale, Hawke’s Bay, is delivering on its promise to invigorate the district’s indoor sports activities. The Rodney Green Arena - which is built behind the existing 20-year-old Pettgirew Green Arena - officially opened in February. A massive 5900sqm in size and has substantially boosted court numbers across volleyball, basketball/netball and futsal. General Manager, Janene Dixon-Smith says the Arena ticks all the boxes as a community playing facility. “Before we had this fantastic arena historically sporting activities were kicked out of the older, smaller arena, when events had been booked. Having Rodney Green Arena means they have a permanent home. Before the new arena we had three courts and that has been grown to nine. We can only see this being a huge boost to the sporting organisations that will call it home.” Janene says it has been heartening to see growth in participate users increasing significantly and plan are to build another two courts within five years to cater for demand. Rodney Green Arena is New Zealand’s equal largest indoor basketball stadium, largest volleyball and futsal centre. It’s development has been years in the planning, with funding to enable its construction coming from the Shovel Ready Projects Fund, Napier City Council, Hastings District Council, Lotteries Significant Project Funding, other charitable organisations and generous sponsors. Janene says every decision regarding its design and the technologies used have been driven from a sporting perspective. “That was the commitment right from the outset. Sports were the focus, and the goal was to deliver a world-class facility. A lot of thinking went into the logistics of using one space for several sporting codes and being able to swap in and out different equipment quickly.” Each sport books the entire arena out on any given day, making it easy for the team of 12, to set up and pack away gear. One of the most positive aspects of what Rodney Green Foundation Arena will deliver over time, is the ability for sporting organisations to grow their sport. “Basketball is the bigest sport in schools in New Zealand and Futsal has increased in participation by over 300%, so having all this space now has created an incredible opportunity to grow.” Sadly, the timing of the opening, just a week before the devastating flooding that gripped the region, impacted bookings for the following two school terms, however Janene says its gratifying to see now that the arenas are at least 80% booked. “A bridge damaged by the flooding has only just reopened. It was difficult from the Hastings side to access the building but we are now confident we will be at 100% booked before too long.” The Rodney Green Arena cost over $20 million to build. It’s construction was negoti-
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