{"id":356785,"date":"2026-03-31T12:37:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T12:37:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/356785\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T12:37:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T12:37:09","slug":"western-springs-bowl-given-green-light-by-auckland-council-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/356785\/","title":{"rendered":"Western Springs Bowl given green light by Auckland Council"},"content":{"rendered":"

Auckland councillors controversially voted to move speedway to Onehunga\u2019s Waikaraka Park in 2024.<\/p>\n

Concert promoter Brent Eccles presented his idea for the council-owned venue at the council\u2019s governing body meeting on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Eccles said that with a few tweaks, Western Springs could become a world-class concert venue, attracting overseas artists.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur inspiration is the Hollywood Bowl, to bring to life an existing Auckland asset, with its own place in the landscape of New Zealand concert venues.<\/p>\n

\"AboutAbout 100 Speedway Association members attended the meeting at Auckland’s Town Hall. Photo \/ Jessica Hopkins, RNZ<\/p>\n

\u201cWestern Springs is a rare asset for a major city. A large capacity, central, natural amphitheatre with flat grassed areas, concrete terraces, toilet facilities, and permanent ticket entry gates.<\/p>\n

\u201cFew other cities have anything like this, and those that do, such as the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles or Red Rocks in Denver, hold them close.\u201d<\/p>\n

He suggested the stadium host concerts during the summer and rugby during the winter.<\/p>\n

Peter Thorp, who spoke at the meeting on behalf of the Ponsonby Rugby Club, supported that idea.<\/p>\n

Ponsonby Rugby Club faced uncertainty about where it would be with its lease at Western Springs expiring.<\/p>\n

Thorp said the proposal was an opportunity to improve the stadium\u2019s infrastructure, including adding more seating closer to the sideline.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we saw the promoters\u2019 idea, we saw the opportunity to be able to do that in a sustainable way, in a community-led way that provides for other community users, and achieve what we believe is a better use of the stadium.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s pretty attractive to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Western Springs Bowl proposal would extend the rugby club\u2019s lease for five more years, with the option for the council to terminate the lease with two years\u2019 notice.<\/p>\n

It was estimated that $2.5 million of public funding would be required to build a permanent stage structure and for other upgrades to the stadium.<\/a> That would come out of the council\u2019s economic and cultural agency T\u0101taki Auckland Unlimited\u2019s existing budget.<\/p>\n

About 100 Speedway Association members wearing Save Our Speedway T-shirts attended the meeting at Auckland\u2019s Town Hall.<\/p>\n

The Speedway Association was represented by their lawyer, Bronwyn Carruthers, KC, who argued the council had not given speedway at Western Springs adequate consideration.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe proposal that has been put forward by the association provides for speedway, events, Ponsonby Rugby, and other rectangular field sports events. It\u2019s the superior option.\u201d<\/p>\n

Throughout the meeting, speedway supporters booed, including at Auckland Unlimited chairwoman Vicki Salmon, who defended council staff\u2019s recommendation to move speedway to Waikaraka.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not going to suit everyone. But this is about what\u2019s best for Auckland, what\u2019s best for Western Springs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Almost 15,000 Aucklanders gave their opinion on how the stadium should be used going forward in 2025.<\/p>\n

But with the council adviser\u2019s preferred option for Western Springs, a privately funded football and concert venue, being pulled by Auckland Football Club\u2019s rich-list owners, councillors had to pick another option, delaying a decision until this year.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Councillor John Gillon said the council\u2019s consultation process had been flawed.<\/p>\n

\u201cConsultation was undertaken without a clear option to include speedway, despite it being a significant and well-supported activity at the stadium for the last 96 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cDue to not being provided their preferred option, supporters of speedway appear to have split their responses between Option 3a (\u2018Keep things as they are\u2019), which received 16% of responses, and Option 3b (\u2018Explore other ideas\u2019), which received 33% of responses (the highest supported option). Options 3a and 3b totalled 49% of responses. Around 30% of all submissions made actual comments relating to keeping speedway, in addition to their selected option.\u201d<\/p>\n

He proposed that the public be consulted again, with two clear options – the Western Springs Bowl and the Speedway Association\u2019s proposal to get a more accurate picture of what the public wanted.<\/p>\n

However, his amendment was voted down 15 to six.<\/p>\n

Councillors also had the option to do nothing.<\/p>\n

But T\u0101taki Auckland Unlimited staff advised councillors to make a decision on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

That was despite an upcoming legal challenge over the decision to end speedway at Western Springs<\/p>\n

The Speedway Association is taking the council to the High Court, with a judicial review expected to take place in July.<\/p>\n

-RNZ<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Auckland councillors controversially voted to move speedway to Onehunga\u2019s Waikaraka Park in 2024. Concert promoter Brent Eccles presented…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":356786,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[51,51237,3595,5205,19724,2518,85959,13832,6804,111,139,69,213,55600,3457],"class_list":["post-356785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-auckland","tag-bowl","tag-by","tag-council","tag-given","tag-green","tag-hopkins","tag-jessica","tag-light","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports","tag-springs","tag-western"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=356785"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356785\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/356786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=356785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=356785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=356785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}