The Blues rugby team, which is one of Eden Park’s important tenants, supports the idea of an arena in Auckland’s CBD and they would be happy to bid adieu to their old home.
The Blues board has thought about the whole issue at their meeting previous week and decided that it would support the making of a football specific arena in the central city in favor of carrying at the suburban ground where they have played for twenty years. The primary issue is one of size.
The Blues, this season, have attracted audience of just more than twenty thousand to both their games at the Eden Park, against Hurricanes and Highlanders, but the fifty thousand capacity arena has been less than half full.
After Herald’s recent Auckland’s stadium debate coverage, triggered by Chris Brooks, the council stadiums boss; comments regarding the city having to decide whether to carry on putting money into Eden Park, and added to by Warriors boss Jim Doyle, owner Eric Watson and major sponsor Vodafone, all of whom have expressed support for a football venue in the CBD, the Blues today sent a statement to the newspaper indicating their own support.
Michael Redman told that the franchise would seriously think about any proposal offered to them to become a core user. They would carry on working very closely with Eden Park Trust to improve their functionality as well as the game day experience for their fans and members within the infrastructure and operational constraints.