A plan to create a multimillion-dollar national sports hall of fame is gaining traction-but it looks like it won’t be in Dunedin.
Discussions with a group outside Dunedin have been moving ahead well, confirmed New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame chairman Stuart Mc Lauchlan.
“To date, this party have delivered on everything they said they would,” Mr Mc Lauchlan said at the organisation’s annual meeting yesterday.
“They are moving very quickly.”
The hall has been housed at the Dunedin Railway Station since 1999, but that location is no longer seen as a good long-term spot, so the trust has been exploring other options.
The Dunedin City Council decided back in September last year not to take part in an expressions-of-interest process that saw four valid bids-from Auckland, Waikato, Christchurch and Invercargill-and now only one remains in the running.
Mr Mc Lauchlan said the due diligence phase with that group was extended until the end of this month.
He and hall chief executive Ron Palenski have been having weekly talks with the interested party.
Mr Mc Lauchlan believes the hall could find “a very good landing” that will secure its future.
“It will be a very good facility, if they deliver.”
The new venue would include interactive and digital features and might take about two years to build.
No hints were given about which region is involved, but sources from Otago Daily Times understand Cambridge, near Hamilton, is leading as host city.
Dunedin would need those talks to fail if it wants to get back into consideration.
The city could continue hosting the hall until a new place opens up.
Sir Ian Taylor, known for his work in sports graphics, said Dunedin had really blown its chance despite having a head start thanks to Sir Eion Edgar donating $500,000 toward building a notable attraction here and Forsyth Barr adding another $200,000 later on.
He criticised the city council for being passive about it all.
“I know the council didn’t do anything to encourage looking at it,” Sir Ian said.
If you ask him, Dunedin just didn’t get its act together fast enough.
“If there’s an opportunity to be lost, a whole lot of people are lining up to lose it,” Sir Ian added.
Dunedin city councillor Andrew Whiley felt that the council hadn’t appreciated how important the hall was for their community here.
“I think it’s a big failure by our council to support and advocate and do everything we can to keep it here,” he said.
“We’ve failed the sports hall of fame and the community in Dunedin. As a council, we could have done much, much better.”
No councillors present at last September’s meeting-including Cr Whiley-voted yes on getting involved in that expressions-of-interest process.
The councillor reflected on this later:
“We voted based on what we knew and the information we were given by staff,” he explained.
The Edgar family’s representative on the Dunedin Indoor Sports Venue Trust Board Alan Mc Kenzie was disappointed seeing what looked like a missed chance for their city.
“This was a one-off opportunity to retain a national museum,” he pointed out.
The town of Cambridge has roughly 20,000 residents and already hosts both New Zealand’s national cycling centre of excellence and Rowing New Zealand’s high-performance centre.
The Waipa District Council CEO Garry Dyet confirmed they’d received feedback during their annual plan process about possibly relocating the hall there.
The district mayor Jim Mylchreest thinks this idea fits nicely with their “Home of Champions” branding.
No official stance from council yet though-they’re still considering things.
Source link
