Old seating removed from Yarrow Stadium in New Plymouth is to be reused by Gisborne Speedway. Photo: Supplied/ Facebook - Gisborne Speedway
The owner of Yarrow Stadium has done an about turn on plans to re-use hundreds of seats as part of its $80 million upgrade.
The Taranaki Regional Council closed the East and West Stands at Yarrow after they were declared earthquake prone in 2017 and 2018 respectively.
The West Stand has since been strengthened and refurbished - including re-using 5000 seats first installed at the turn of the century.
Taranaki Regional Council corporate services director Mike Nield said there had been a rethink on seating in the new 1800 capacity East Stand which was currently under construction.
"The original plan had been to use the seats in the new stand, but when we looked at a number of factors, such as the age of the seats and the costs of bringing them up to scratch and installing them, it made sense to install new ones.
"Their cost and installation will be about $280,000 and this is part of the existing budget for the project."
Mike Nield Photo: RNZ / Robin Martin
Nield said reusing the old seats in the East Stand - which previously had a capacity of 4500 - had also posed additional challenges.
"It's worth noting that we were able to reuse the seats in the West Stand as these were straightforward to reinstall once the stand was repaired, whereas the East Stand is a completely new facility."
Nield said the council had also investigated whether the old seats could be used when large scale events were hosted at the stadium - such as All Blacks visits - "but because of their design this was cost prohibitive".
New homes had been found for the old seats.
"We're delighted that we've been able to upcycle the seats which had been earmarked for the new East Stand to four local sports clubs in Taranaki and Gisborne Speedway," Nield said.
"It's great to see these clubs will be making good use of the old seats for many years to come."
The speedway had taken to Facebook to celebrate the arrival of its share of the seating.
"A massive thank you to Shaun Smith and the EcoTyre Recycling team for loading, carting and unloading 2000 seats all the way from New Plymouth. These will be installed in the off season."
The remaining seats would remain in Taranaki and be shared between the Hāwera Lawn Tennis & Squash Rackets Club and the Coastal, Tukapa and Stratford/Eltham rugby clubs.
Nield said construction of the new East Stand remained on budget and it was due to open for the winter sports season in 2025.
"It will be flexible and enable the venue to hold a variety of sports and community events," he said.
"We can't wait for the stand to be finished and the venue to enjoy events like the Bunnings NPC final last October when a sellout crowd saw the Yarrows Taranaki Bulls win the championship."
The project had also allowed the seating in the open-air South Stand to be given a spruce up, Nield said.
