Matt Cowley Tauranga City Councillor

Following the squabbles in Auckland and Wellington over sports stadiums, I welcome the news that Sport NZ is doing a stocktake of sport facilities in each region.

A comment from a visiting Sport NZ officer resonated with elected members – 'NZ needs to be big enough to know we're small.”

NZ's population is less than Sydney's. So when Tauranga invests in facilities, we need to look closely at our neighbours. For instance, we've got two great rugby stadiums within a 90 minute drive, and they don't cost Tauranga ratepayers a cent!

Tauranga's Bay Oval Trust is a fine example. They had a vision for a boutique, affordable facility to host world class daytime cricket. They fundraised and delivered it.

Tauranga ratepayers only contribute $100,000 per year for field maintenance of the Oval (because we own the grounds).

The Oval fills a niche for international matches with an intimate crowd, picturesque setting, low overhead costs, and a wonderful playing surface.

It competes against similar grounds in New Plymouth, Nelson, and Queenstown to be NZ's best boutique facility for international daytime cricket. This is a smarter approach than competing against the big city stadiums.

Tauranga can get good return on investment for supporting boutique events; we just need to invest wisely.

For example, the Western Bay was showcased to a captive audience at both international cricket matches this week because Tourism BOP (funded by commercial ratepayers) provided Sky TV with great material to promote between overs.

Tourism BOP also leveraged off the NZ Crossfit team champs being held in the ASB Arena over labour weekend.

Crossfit is trendy new type of gym sport. Four out of ten NZ adults have a gym membership. So helping the local event organisers to reach out to gyms across NZ to get them to compete in Tauranga is a smart investment for just $5,000.

Being big enough to know we're small is a key theme that I believe this council will apply to our other services as we develop our draft Long Term Plan.

In other news this week, Council supported Bob Clarkson's request to fast-track planning the western growth corridor (Tauriko/Pyes Pa), hopefully with our SmartGrowth partners. This was after Bob's spokesperson said Bob's land was not suitable for a special housing area.

Feel free to email me your thoughts (matt.cowley@tauranga.govt.nz), call/text me on 027 6989 548, and follow me at www.facebook.com/a.younger.voice.