Grand reopening for park

BY SALLY KIDSON

Trafalgar Park has been upgraded from a tired facility into a striking gateway into Nelson, and is ready to withstand the world's scrutiny next year, Mayor Kerry Marshall says.

The park was officially opened under cloudy Nelson skies on Saturday morning by Mr Marshall, Nelson MP Nick Smith and Rugby NZ 2011 chief executive Martin Snedden.

Mr Marshall and Dr Smith cut a ribbon at the park gate, with the help of children and unveiled a plaque at the entrance.

While the park was formally opened on Saturday, it had its first unofficial try out a week ago when the Tasman Makos beat Canterbury 27-25, in a nail-biting rugby match that was still being discussed at the opening.

Mr Marshall said the park had been at the heart of the city since it was opened in 1888 when it was known as the Mudflat Recreation Ground.

The $7.4 million upgrade was to make the park into a multi-purpose facility which could be used to host events as well as sports matches.

The new turf was built on a 2800 tonne carpet of recycled glass sand – which was 7 per cent of the recycled glass in the South Island a year.

Mr Marshall paid special thanks to the main contractor, Opus, and the many local subcontractors who had gone the extra mile with their work as it was their park.

Dr Smith said the Rugby World Cup was the third-biggest sporting event in the year and he did not think the country understood the challenge of hosting it.

He said Trafalgar Park had been transformed into a "magnificent facility" that would serve Nelson well past the hosting of the three Rugby World Cup games next year.

The Government gave $1.5m towards the park's upgrade.

"I don't think many cities could have a park of this size so close to the central city."

Mr Snedden said he and Nigel Cass, Rugby New Zealand 2011's manager of tournament services, were at the opening to show Nelson how much they cared about what had been achieved at the park in preparation for next year's Rugby World Cup.

He said while hosting the cup was a huge task for New Zealand, he was confident the country was on track because of work being done in places such as Nelson to upgrade facilities.

Mr Snedden told the Nelson Mail that ticket sales in Nelson had "a good solid start".

He did not have the figures on hand, but said nationally half a million tickets to games had been sold in the first phase of ticket sales.

Organisers had always expected sales to be strongest in the three main venues first.

Mr Snedden said he was confident Nelson was in good shape to host its three games.

"Like everywhere else it is still trying to work out just how best to extract the most benefit from it, that's not unusual. We've still got plenty of time, and there is lots of good ideas around and lots of good people.

"From our point of view, we know they are in the right place a year out."

For those who attended festivities at the park's open day, a chance to get up close to the shiny Webb Ellis Cup, the Rugby World Cup trophy, was one of the activities on offer.

Those who saw it said it was smaller and more golden in colour than they had expected.

Tyler Edwards, 10, who plays halfback for Wanderers Blue under 11s, said it was great to see the Cup and he hoped the All Blacks would win it next year.

Graham and Maureen Ellwood also took the opportunity to check out the upgraded park and have a close-up look at the Webb Ellis Cup.

Mrs Elwood said she was impressed with the ground's new surface and the way it drained away, noting that it was dry despite all the rain that had fallen overnight.

Mr Ellwood said the upgrade was "long overdue".

- © Fairfax NZ News