Auckland's Stanley Street tennis center needs about NZ$16.5M ($11M) in total, or to be more specific, the NZ$11M ($7.3M) "of that amount still needed to bring the ASB Tennis Arena up to the level required to continue to host ATP and WTA level tournaments," according to Marc Hinton of STUFF. But the world "stands still for nobody, and the tennis one is no exception." Character, charm and retro cool "only get you so far." It is "a fine line between dated and decrepit and what was acceptable 10 years ago can be sub-standard now." Tennis Auckland "needs to redevelop its stadium to secure the event's long-term future." It "needs to tear down and rebuild the sub-standard Yock and Robinson Stands and turn the arena into an enclosed amphitheatre, with an additional 500 seats (capacity 3700)." It needs to put a retractable roof on to "weather-proof" the event. It "needs to update outmoded support facilities, and add additional buildings that are now de rigueur on the men's and women's tours."
Plans "are already drawn up, a resource consent application is in front of council" and NZ$5.5M ($3.6M) has been secured of the NZ$16.5M it will cost to complete what is essentially phase two of the stadium upgrade. The first part, a NZ$24M development, was undertaken in '10 in partnership with Next Gen health clubs, and "it required no public money." This time round, Tennis Auckland "needs help." It is optimistic the budget can be met -- "this is not rugby stadium money being talked about -- but caution that if key parties sit on their hands, the long-term future of arguably New Zealand's most iconic international sporting event could come under threat." Tournament Dir Karl Budge said, "Ultimately we put the tournaments at risk if we don't act now" (STUFF, 12/13).
