Waiting game: why Silver Ferns spurn city

Published date17 September 2021
THERE was outrage in Dunedin.

The year was 1999 and, for the first time since 1988, the city had been left off the Silver Ferns’ schedule.

Christchurch and its then-new 8000-seat facility had usurped Dunedin, hosting that year’s world championships and two lead-in matches.

Venue size and costs of the old Dunedin Stadium had been among the key factors in its dumping.

Dunedin’s most recent test, against Australia in 1998, had been played on a makeshift court near the entrance of the Edgar Centre in front of a capacity 3300 crowd.

However, Netball New Zealand then-executive director Alistair Snell had said that Edgar Centre court was not ideal for what the Ferns were looking for.

He said Dunedin Stadium had not improved its facilities in 20 years.

While NNZ would not rule out a return to Dunedin, he acknowledged it would slip further down the priority list if something was not done.

That outrage has since simmered.

Perhaps, if it was known Dunedin would host just one more test, it would have been even greater at the time.

That was against England in 2008, the only time test netball has graced the court of the main arena at the Edgar Centre.

The city has since become an afterthought in terms of international netball, and for the younger generation who knew no different, barely a thought at all.

The arena’s capacity of 2800 was likely to be a limiting factor at the outset.

Both Edgar Centre general manager Blair Crawford and Dunedin netball’s most prominent figure, Dame Lois Muir, acknowledged that.

Muir added that had been a conscious decision when the arena, which opened in 2004, was built.

She said constructing a facility that could be used more widely, at the expense of top-line tests, was considered more important.

It was not something she felt was missed too much — relative to cost, at least.

People could still watch the games on television and she felt the money that would be used on a bigger arena was better being used investing in younger players and coaches.

‘‘Young people do see the Silver Ferns play,’’ Muir said.

‘‘It isn’t live here because we haven’t got the seating. We were better to build a smaller building that was going to be used all the time for everyday people to do activity and grow players than have one test every two years.’’

Netball New Zealand head of events Kate Agnew offered a slightly different perspective.

She said there were various limiting factors nowadays, although the capacity was not prime among them.

A lack of space around...

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