In late 2026 it turns out a sports facility shortage in New Plymouth hasn’t got a whole lot to do with a $50M council Sports Hub project.

Once upon a time there was a New Plymouth Sports Hub concept put out to the Community by the NPDC, under Mayor Holdom’s watch. That was way back in 2021. Fast forward to late 2026 - and it turns out a sports facility shortage hasn’t got a whole lot to do with a $50M council project.

The people of New Plymouth were sold a concept to get agreement to start a project, but what that project was going to be, and why it was going to be needed, no longer seem to have much to do with what is now being built.

• This is a story about the machinery of Council and questioning how decisions are being made.

The 2021 Long Term Plan talked about a sports hub and a feasibility study was done about the situation with sports in New Plymouth. This is the opening wording of the background behind the feasibility of a New Plymouth Multi Sports Hub Master Plan:

From 2021 through to 2024 the Sports Hub concept continued to be debated and developed. It became somewhat controversial, as any outdoor sports ideas were removed from the Masterplan, and 6 indoor courts in one building became the focus. The feasibility study which was at the heart of discussions in the 2021 LTP had the following information about which sports had increasing participation and which sports were growing in New Plymouth:

 

These 2 graphs showed the New Plymouth Community why a Sports Hub Masterplan was being prepared and why it was needed.

83% of participation for sports in New Plymouth was for outdoor sports activities.

17% of participation was for indoor sports activities.

The biggest growth in numbers for sports activities was for outdoor sports activities:

Touch had increased by 1000 participants (1,000 to 2,000)

Hockey had increased by 500 participants (1,300 to 1,800)

Rugby had increased by 400 participants (1,900 to 2,300)

Outdoor Netball had reduced – but by far had the biggest number - with over 3,500 participants.

Indoor sports growth numbers were very modest:

Gymnastics had increased by 200 participants (150 to 350)

Volleyball had increased by 200 participants (150 to 350)

Basketball had increased by 200 participants (2,000 to 2,200)

• 1,900 more participants were using outdoor facilities
• 600 more participants were using indoor facilities.

So, the 2021 LTP had the following concept design to mitigate the lack of “outdoor” sports facilities for New Plymouth, and the community was sold on solving an outdoor sports facility problem with this picture – a whole lot of outdoor activities in a master plan:

 

In the 2024 LTP the narrative changed from the council - it wasn’t possible to build in the middle of the racecourse as had been planned - and the $38.5 million estimated cost had now blown out to $110 million – so a scaled back concept was introduced - with just 6 indoor multi use courts for $50 million instead.

In 2024 the NPDC continued to push through plans to spend $50M on a building to solve the issues with growth in (outdoor) sports activities in New Plymouth.

• From that point on the Alliance asked for progress updates and building plans to see what was going to be built with just these 6 courts and $50 million.

We also did an OIA in 2025 to ask about the cost benefit analysis of building more indoor courts - as the TSB stadium provided indoor courts already. That OIA showed that the capacity at the TSB stadium was under utilised and the Stadium was running at a loss. We couldn’t get an exact number as the total for the TSB Stadium is added up with the Bowl of Brooklands – what was confirmed though was that both were under utilised and running at a loss.

Several OIA’s through 2025 showed the following one page plan for what was going to be built with the Sports Hub Masterplan building. Building 18 is the current TSB stadium and building 19 was the proposed Sports Hub building:

Recently a number of people have been asking us what is happening with the Sports Hub and how are things progressing. We did an OIA to see how plans were going as we see some building work has begun.

It was an interesting exercise doing this OIA. We asked for the actual plans being used to build the Sports Hub building. Building work has started so that means there must be plans.

The first response was a link to the NPDC website to the page full of “spin” about the now “Active Community Hub” – the word “sports” has disappeared. We wrote back - asking for the actual plans.

The second response was a picture of a floor plan – and we were very surprised to find it was now a 2 storey building – there were 2 floor plans – ground level and first storey. We wrote back again asking for front, back and side views of the building.

At attempt 3 we had what looks more like plans.

We were quite surprised to see what is being built and what is going to be inside the building – and to be frank – how little sports activity is actually being catered for in a TWO STOREY – sports hub building. This is the “now” 2 storey building plan:

Ground Floor

Level 1

• We actually asked for these building plans in June 2025 – to be told they had not yet been finalised.

We note now that we have actual plans - these went out to tender in March 2025 – so the plans had been used for the tender process before June 2025. Whichever team at the NPDC was responsible for sending us a copy of these plans with our OIA request - chose not to disclose in June 2025 what was planned to be built - even though the plans had been used in a tender process 3 months earlier.

• This makes us wonder, did the elected officials know the 2 storey plans had been sent out for tender in March 2025, and had they signed off on those tender plans ?

• Did we not receive a copy of the tender plans in June 2025 because the community may have made a fuss and tried to stop this huge 2 storey building from going ahead ?

So, what does the concept drawing look like in 2026 ?

What follows are snapshots of pieces of the floor plans and what is being built. You will see lots of lease spaces, meeting rooms, admin areas – all sorts of things – which remember – New Plymouth had a problem with outdoor sports facilities – yet this is where the decision making machine of the NPDC managed to get us all to.

Ground Floor – check out admin and back of house (in pink)

Level One – Check admin space and Lease spaces for meeting rooms, back of house etc. (in pink)

This building is going to be built and contracts have been signed - so the build won’t be stopped – but we really want to point out how the system at the NPDC - with the last group of elected officials - managed to make this $50 million decision. They had a feasibility study done -this showed them what they needed to develop and build – but they are building something that doesn’t actually meet any of the issues the feasibility study said they needed to meet.

We have written to the current Mayor and Councillors and asked if they have actually seen the plans now available for the Hub project, and at what time did they see those plans and if any of the longer serving councillors signed off on them. We don’t expect to get a reply but we will let you know if we do hear back.

 Our biggest concern looking at this series of events from 2021 to mid 2026 is who exactly was pushing this project and how did so many people involved, the elected officials and the staff at the NPDC, manage to completely miss the point about what needed to be built and why, from the original feasibility study issues.

And once an indoor facility became the plan, who decided 2 floors would be better than one, and a whole lot of admin areas and meeting rooms would be a great idea, when indoor facilities weren’t actually the problem in the first place with sports in Taranaki ?

• Who actually made the decisions about what would be built, as we followed agendas and minutes for months, and we were aware plans hadn’t been available to be voted on, which is why we were doing the OIA’s in the first half of 2025.

The NPDC will be borrowing $50 million to build this (non sports) Community Hub, which future ratepayers will have to repay, but did the Community need even one floor of this building to be built, let alone two ?

And how does this community make sure these types of decisions do not continue to get made at the NPDC ?