Speedway slows down: Decision delayed until wider stadium decision takes place

Tuesday, 20 November 2018

Some in the speedway community said they felt 'betrayed' by the Auckland Council discussion about moving the sport.

Auckland Council has voted to delay a decision on the controversial speedway's move from Western Springs until a wider discussion on stadia takes place.

After allegations of a $29.9 million 'blow-out' in proposals for a new speedway venue at Colin Dale Park alarmed some councillors, plans for the council's Finance and Performance Committee to sign off the deal were scaled back to a planned vote on capping council's contribution to a new track and basic amenities at $10 million.

But that vote was scuppered by an amendment to postpone the debate until a political discussion had been conducted on the future of all of Auckland's stadia, including Eden Park.

Mayor Phil Goff left the Council meeting after the amendment succeeded and before the speedway vote was completed. The second part of the vote took place without him.

**READ MORE:

Moving speedway to Colin Dale Park is estimated to cost nearly $40 million.

* 'Betrayed': The secret speedway deal that left fans gobsmacked

* Speedway's Western Springs exit: has council made best deal?

* Auckland Mayor Phil Goff 'not satisfied' over multimillion dollar speedway blow-out**

A decision in favour of the speedway move appeared a near certainty in June when Auckland Council and SPL signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), which expires on Friday, to move speedway to Colin Dale Park after 94 years at Western Springs.

But the plan hit several speed bumps in the months afterwards when prominent members of the speedway community came out in opposition, others said they felt 'betrayed', and internal memos revealed money for the project could come out of the city's parks budget.

Finally, last week, Stuff revealed that cost projections for Colin Dale had almost tripled, prompting some to label the whole enterprise 'f…ing out of control' and Mayor Phil Goff to say he was 'not satisfied'.

But a different set of figures to the ones released last week were then presented at Auckland Council's Finance and Performance Committee on Tuesday afternoon.

'Your figures seem to be changing minute by minute,' said councillor Daniel Newman at the meeting. 'It's just amazing trying to keep up with this.'

Colin Dale Park identified as new home for Speedway in Auckland.

Councillor John Watson,a vocal opponent of the move, characterised it as 'frantic negotiations into the night and suddenly we have a whole raft of different recommendations.

'How can you have any trust in that? I don't have trust in it.'

The original deal outlined in the MOU was that the council would make an $11.5m contribution to a new facility at Colin Dale Park, which would be leased for up to 30 years to private promoters Springs Promotions.

Officers for Auckland Council who appeared at the hearing said the MOU was for a 'basic design' and the cost of that would be $11.7m.

But there would be other, more expensive designs, including a functional design of $20m and a 'complete' design of $30m.

There would be additional 'landlord' works of $8.9m required taking the total cost of the complete design to $38.9m for the 'complete' design.

The complete plan would open the venue up to seven sporting codes and a raft of facilities.

Councillor Linda Cooper said $8.9m of landlord works for Colin Dale Park would be needed regardless of any decision on moving speedway and urged councillors to vote for them.

'I'm not afraid to invest in our parks when we need it,' Cooper said.

'Speedway removal [from Western Springs] has become a catalyst to re-ignite the development of this park.'

Councillor Wayne Walker asked if a business case for the Colin Dale move had been presented, to which John Duncan of the Auckland Investment Office said there hadn't been.

'Our investment is not looking for a return.'

Members of the speedway community spoke for and against the move to Colin Dale Park.

Wendy's restaurant boss Danny Lendich, who said he had millions invested in the sport, asked the council to 'stop, stand back' and perform due diligence before voting to move the park away from Western Springs.

No move of a speedway event out of the central city had succeeded, he said.

Lendich rattled off Australian cities Sydney, Perth, and Brisbane, all of whom had experienced large drops in attendance after moving from the city.

The Sydney 'crowd was down to 40 people' the last time he visited, he said.

'Does anyone here want to challenge me on those numbers? Stand up and challenge me.'

In favour of speedway's move to Colin Dale Park was Graham Standring, President of the Western Springs Drivers Club, who said the move was an opportunity for the sport to start with a 'clean sheet'.

Standring said in his opinion drivers at Western Springs were in favour of the move.

He criticised an alternative proposal to move to Waikaraka Park instead of Colin Dale, saying it would require two different sports to race on the same track.

'Both codes have evolved to a situation where they've really isolated themselves.'