Potential BIG changes for sport in Marlborough

As a former product of good 'ol Blenheim, I have been interested in reading a rather well put together article by Marlborough Express Sports reporter Clay Wilson in today's paper (ONLINE HERE) about changes that the Marlborough District Council are exploring for public sporting venues in Blenheim.

As it currently stands Cricket, and Netball dominate Horton Par, Athletics and cycling are at Athletic park, Oliver Park see's football (soccer) and cricket, Landsdowne Park is the home of Rugby, while Polo happens at Rewi Murray park.  Softball and Football share A&P park.

Under the proposed changes to Landsdowne Park, Rugby will share the facility with new Athletic, Netball and Softball fields/courts, with two different layouts for Winter and Summer

Possible winter field layout

Possible Summer field layout

As you can see touch, softball and athletics are the main stake holders in the summer, while Rugby and netball are the main stake holders in Winter.

Moving softball away from A&P Park, free's up more space for summer football, as does moving cricket from Oliver park to Rewi Murray park.  Polo would move from Rewi Murray to the new Equestrian venue at Bothams Bend.

Netball would move entirely from Horton Park to Landsdowne as would Athletics from Athletic Park, allowing the council to sell the netball half of Horton Park and Athletic park to fund the development at Landsdowne Park.

It is hard to doubt that the implementation of the entire plan could have a hugely positive impact on the health of sport in the Marlborough region. And although Lansdowne Park will remain the home of Marlborough rugby, it will also become a venue where several other sports are able to flourish, said Bartlett.
"Lansdowne will always be the home of rugby, we can't stress that enough. We want to make sure [rugby] are happy and benefiting from anything we do, but we still all believe it can be a multi-sport park."   

It will be interesting to see if council gets support from the community and the various sporting bodies, but I for one can see these being advantageous for those people still in Blenheim