Size Does Matter: Ashburton Venue Forecast To Lose Bigger Events

Thursday, 2 October 2025, 5:14 pm
Article: Jonathan Leask - Local Democracy Reporter

Ashburton risks being sidelined from major sporting events as larger neighbouring facilities outpace its four-court stadium.

EA Networks Centre enjoyed a record visitation last year but is forecast to miss out hosting big events in future. Ashburton District Council’s people and facilities group manager Sarah Mosley said she expects fewer “higher profile or larger sized events going forward”.

“That’s purely because the size of our stadium compared with neighbouring councils.

“A netball tournament for example, with more courts you can punch it in and out in a lot shorter succession.”

Mosley noted in her report to the council’s activity briefing on September 24 that feedback from the Sport NZ Hui was that a six-court facility is likely to become the minimum for many events, “dropping Ashburton off the radar and shifting our focus to smaller – regionalised events”.

“We will have a niche, it will just be a different niche going forward than what we have got now. “The larger events may not come our direction.”

EA Networks Centre has four courts, while the neighbouring councils have or are building stadiums with greater capacity.

Selwyn’s Sport Centre, which opened in 2021 and cost $21.5m, has eight multipurpose courts - four wooden sprung and four polyurethane courts.

It was built to cater to community sport but has hosted some tournaments and events.

Christchurch’s new Parakiore Recreation and Sport Centre is set to open this year, with multipurpose indoor courts capacity for nine netball courts and other indoor sports codes.

Originally forecast to cost $217 million, it is expected to be around $500 million upon completion. Timaru is also looking at building an eight-court indoor sports stadium at Aorangi Park.

The $24.2 million redevelopment of Aorangi Stadium will begin in January and is expected to be completed by mid-2027.

Ashburton has plans for a three-court extension in the long-term plan, starting in 2031 for an estimated $23.7m.

Mid Canterbury Netball centre manager Erin Tasker said Netball NZ’s domestic events selection policy says that, where possible, events will be hosted in main centres or within a 40-minute drive of a main centre, with plenty of flight and accommodation options.

That puts Ashburton “already a bit touch and go” for hosting, being an hour from Christchurch and on top of that, some tournaments already require a minimum of six courts.

“If we had more courts, we’d immediately become a more attractive option.

“We always get great feedback from visiting netball teams about what an awesome facility we have. It’s just a shame we can’t showcase that to more people by hosting bigger and more prestigious tournaments, due to only having four courts.”

EA Networks Centre hosts an U16 South Island tournament every second year that featured 24 teams in 2025, and “with four courts that just worked okay”.

“If it were to grow too much more, we could struggle to fit it in,” Tasker said.

Record year at EA Networks Centre The 2024/25 year was the EA Networks Centre’s 10th year in operation and had a record 512,838 people walked through the front doors.

Mosley said the counter system is at the entrance doors of the facility that contains the gym, pool, stadium and a café.

That means the count doesn’t necessarily equate to a record number of fee-paying users.

Mosley said there was a 23% uplift in external stadium booked hours in 2024/25, from 4479 the previous year up to 5494.

Stadium court demand varies across the year and day-to-day but the average peak times are 3pm-9pm Monday to Friday and all-day Saturday and Sunday she said.

Council figures show the centre had an operating income total of $6,661,052. Mosley said the user charges - sales, grants, fees and charges made up 31% ($2,075,261).

Ratepayers topped up 66% ($4,373,149) of the revenue with the remainder being a $212,731 insurance payout.

The overall expenses of the centre in 2024/25 were budgeted $6,539,769. Hampstead Pool The council will not be utilising the Hampstead School pool this summer.

The council partnered with Hampstead School last summer to operate its outdoor pool during the maintenance shutdown of the pools at EA Networks Centre.

Mosely said it was “a one-off scenario” and there is no planned pool closure for maintenance at the EA Networks Centre this summer.

Minigolf Course

The new mini golf course at the EA Networks Centre is under construction and on track for opening by the end of the year. Six of the prefabricated holes have been installed on site already.

Mosley said that when it opens it will be free to play, but there is fees if people need to hire putters and balls from the EA Networks Centre, and there is a plan for a “booking system”.

-LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.

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