Pathetic attendance levels will cost Christchurch
TONY SMITH - THE BALD FACTS - The PressOPINION: What's up with Christchurch sports fans and their marked reluctance to venture east of Fitzgerald Ave for major sporting events?
This week, we've heard that only 3000 tickets have been sold for the International Paralympics Committee's (IPC) world championship – just one-fifth of the capacity at QEII Stadium.
Canterbury United's crowds – never much more than 1000 at English Park – have dipped disturbingly since their temporary shift to Linfield Park in Bromley.
And, dear old Canterbury Cricket – still flying boldly in the face of public opinion – is maintaining its pathetic bid for a test ground on the hallowed Hagley Park turf lest their purists have to travel to QEII's eminently suitable Village Green ground.
The Paralympics are an elite sporting event, by any standard. Sure, there's no Usain Bolt there, but you try beating Oscar Pistorius, South Africa's acclaimed Blade Runner, on a lap of the QEII track. The 24-year-old, dubbed the Fastest Man on No Legs, can run 46.5sec for the 400m. He once won the South Africa able-bodied championships title. Yet, there's no guarantee Pistorius will win gold in Christchurch.
Now, it could be argued that the event's local organisers have hardly bombarded the market with promotional reminders. But the world will be watching. If Christchurch can't come to the party with decent crowds, don't expect to attract events of this magnitude again.
The IPC championships have attracted 1000 athletes, 900 officials, 600 supporters and 125 media. That's a lot of hotel rooms which would otherwise be emptyish in January, at a time the city is still reeling from an economic recession and a crippling earthquake.
But we shouldn't be surprised at Christchurch's apparent indifference to an international event in our own backyard. QEII has hardly drawn big crowds since the full-house signs for the 1974 Commonwealth Games.
There seems to be a mindset on the western side of this city that North New Brighton is a journey too far to watch international sport. This, despite the ring-road system, which makes the stadium much more accessible, via QEII drive.
I've heard it said, from people who think nothing of holidaying in Nelson or the Marlborough Sounds, that there are 20-something sets of traffic lights between QEII and Halswell.
Perhaps it's a symptom of the cable television age, where top sport is beamed into our living rooms.
But, the more middle class the code, the more aversion there seems to be at straying too far from the city. And you don't get much more middle class than cricket and football in New Zealand.
We're fickle folk in Canterbury sport. It still surprises me that 14,000 will turn out at AMI Stadium to watch the Wellington Phoenix, yet Canterbury United can't attract 1400 for national league matches.That's the problem? Worried the car will be pinched on the east side of the divide? Too wimpish to endure the old beastly easterly?
Granted, there's a yawning gulf in quality between the fully professional A-League and the ASB premiership. But it wasn't that long ago that men like Ben Sigmund and boy wonder Marco Rojas were playing at that lower level and they seem to have stepped up without too much trouble.
Canterbury United officials have had texts this season from supposedly stalwart football fans asking the score at Linfield Park. When asked why they're not there, they've complained it's too far from home. Try telling that to fans from lower league clubs in England, who think nothing of travelling from Devon to the northeast to follow their favourite team.
Admittedly, the Canterbury Dragons haven't won a game since November. But they still have a decent team led by All White Aaron Clapham. The atmosphere, and pristine pitch, at Linfield Park are as good as English Park, the sport's spiritual home here.
But if any sporting organisation is guilty of biting the hand that feeds it, it must be Canterbury Cricket, which has benefited immensely from city ratepayers' largesse with the Village Green development. Not content, it now wants another $1m from the public purse for its harebrained Hagley Park move.
Lee Germon and his team should face the fact that Plunket Shield and test cricket are not major spectator sports. Even the last Twenty20 international at AMI Stadium struggled to draw a crowd. Village Green is more than adequate for the Canterbury team's needs. It could also be upgraded as a test venue.
Moreover, it is based in a pre-existing sports complex cluster. It would be much more appropriate to establish a fully enclosed ground there than at Hagley Park, which was only ever meant for recreational sport and passive pastimes.
Hagley Park is a jewel in Christchurch's crown, testimony to the vision of the early settlers who saw a need to set aside and preserve public green space. It's a communal taonga. The last thing it needs is a test cricket enclosure. Move it to QEII – cricket's natural home of the future – and keep Hagley Park free for senior club and junior cricket.
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