The creation of the franchised New Zealand Football Championship in 2004 killed the club as a top-tier participant and led to a refocus on the venue, with the creation of the trust that now oversees Bill McKinlay Park.
The pitch was upgraded so that in addition to Uni-Mount teams, it could be hired by other users for regular competition and tournaments, primarily for football but now also touch football and ultimate frisbee.
The fourth-generation turf is branded as Pure PT and installed in New Zealand by TigerTurf, whose Dutch-based parent company, TenCate, developed the product in association with PSV Eindhoven over several years.
The Bill McKinlay Park pitch cost around $750,000, of which Auckland Council’s Sport and Recreation Facilities Investment Fund contributed $300,000 and the trust around $200,000, with grants from the Four Winds Foundation, Grassroots Trust and New Zealand Community Trust making up the balance.
Bill McKinlay Park Trust chairman Steve Baggaley said their gen four football pitch doesn’t need a shockpad, which would have cost around $150,000, so the price they paid was about the same as a gen three pitch with a shockpad.
A recent function at Bill McKinlay Park about gen four pitches was attended by dozens of potential users, including rugby organisations, although a shockpad is needed if a gen four pitch is installed for rugby.
Baggaley said the roll and bounce of the ball on their pitch were more akin to a grass surface, and that without rubber or chip infill, maintenance requirements were less onerous.
“It’s spongier and is supposed to act more like grass.
“Grass is the ideal surface but it’s a better version of an artificial pitch. There’s week-to-week maintenance – keeping it clean, blowing any leaves off it – but the deep cleaning and regular maintenance needed with an infill pitch isn’t required.
“None [of the infill options] are ideal and they all compact down so you end up with a hard turf. Traditionally with an infill pitch, you need to rake them, lift the infill and clean them, whereas with one that doesn’t have infill, you don’t need to do that. You just need to brush it, and rather than brushing monthly, it gets brushed every three months now.
“One of the big issues with the traditional pitches is that the infill rubs together and damages the filaments, so if there’s no infill, there’s no damage to the filaments, so we should get a longer life out of it. I’m happy with it. It means we don’t have to worry about that for 15-20 years and can focus on other areas of the park.”
The trust’s next major project is installing small-sided pitches on ground between the park and railway line that has been added to their lease.