STADIUM LIGHTS AT TE KORI SCOTT POINT

Te Kori Scott Point Hobsonville Point

Te Kaunihera o Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland Council, are building New Zealand's first fully sustainable sports park at Scott Point. The park will comprise three main areas: an area for sports and active recreation, an informal recreation area, and an area of ecological restoration and conservation.

The Sustainable Sports park master plan design includes two lit baseball diamonds, three football fields and two artificial turf fields. This park will become one of the home fields for North Shore City Baseball Club and Albany and Greenhithe Football Clubs.


The Opportunity for Lights

There is a unique opportunity while construction is still underway to include stadium lights in the Te Kori Scott Point masterplan. Stadium lights support the ability to train and play on the fields without any natural light, on cloudy days and during the evenings. Stadium lights are designed in a way to not disturb neighbours and they don’t lead to excessive wear and tear on the grass due to the infield being turf. These types of lights do exist for other sports – ie, Rosedale Park for softball – but this would be a first for baseball.

The ability for our clubs to make the most of our new fields is limited. Nowhere in New Zealand are there any baseball fields with quality stadium lights. When the North Shore City Baseball Club sent a youth team overseas recently to South Korea for a baseball tournament, a parent commented:

“The players based overseas that have access to better training facilities, particularly with quality lights, had a higher level of skills than our tamariki. The ability to have access to training fields later in the evening isn’t just for accessibility, but to support our young people that are wanting to move into High Performance and compete Internationally at a higher level.”

The difference that lights would make would have a myriad of positive benefits to North Shore City Baseball, Albany and Greenhithe Football Clubs and the local community.

Positive impact for baseball and football

Positive impact for wider community

Train in evenings (both in winter and summer), allowing more time to work on skills. Also allows accessibility to parents or players who work normal hours

Hosting afternoon/evening games for the community to enjoy, encouraging active recreation and physical activity.

Host community events such as themed events or charity fundraisers

Reduce rain delays, by starting games later in the day

Hosting national baseball tournaments and other sporting day events, bringing together teams from across the country

Play games later in the evening

Safer access to fields in evenings


Bringing that small-town feel to Hobsonville Point

In small towns across the United States of America, there is no wonder that baseball is such a popular and growing sport. Across the country, you will find people gathering to watch games at their local fields, making a full day and night out of it.

If we could host tournaments with little leagues teams from across the country, or host evening games with our Senior Premier teams, we will not only bring more awareness and popularity for the sport but bring together the Hobsonville Point and wider Auckland communities.

Sport is about community, whānau, togetherness. Night games bring an entirely different atmosphere to sport. Families can make an evening of it, buy from local vendors and connect with their neighbours. There is not only a positive social impact, but a potential economic impact to small businesses.

In Auckland we run into the issue of being too big to get a small-town feel. With Hobsonville Point being a master planned community, there is a unique opportunity to include in that plan a new way to use sport to bring the community together.

“Small town baseball is as much community picnic as sporting event. Kids roam the stadium freely with their buddies – and often run the bases after the games – while their parents enjoy beers with their friends and neighbours [sp]. The cadence of life at the local ballpark reveals a deep hunger for a sense of community that can be hard to find, yet is still alive in these rickety bleachers across America.”[1]


Not just about baseball

It is not just about baseball. The roll-on effect that having quality stadium lights at Te Kori Scott Point would have inherent value for other sporting codes and the wider community.

Without lights, training in the evening is limited. With baseball we are lucky to be a summer sport, with the sun setting later in the day. Football on the other hand is a winter sport. Lights would make all the difference to the Albany and Greenhithe Football Clubs. It would make training safer and more accessible.

Bring involved and around the sport environment from a young age encourages a more physically active lifestyle for tamariki and rangatahi. This aligns with the Sport New Zealand Ihi Aotearoa vision of “Every Body Active”.

The sport and recreation fields are designed with walking tracks, encouraging the use of active transport for the community and a perfect place for an evening to walk the dog. Lights would make it safer, and we would see more people utilising the park after dark if they existed. Not only could the community gather to watch baseball games hosted later in the evening, but the fields could be utilised to host community centric events such as a carnival, a Matariki celebration, a charitable fundraiser, or a whānau Christmas evening for a local school.


Alignment with Strategic Planning

The results of having quality stadium lights at Te Kori Scott Point align well with the ‘A mahere ā rohe o | Upper Harbour 2023 Upper Harbour Local Board Plan 2023’.[2]

Plan at a glance

How this proposal aligns with Upper Harbour Local Board Plan

Our people


Our goal is to create an inclusive and connected community, adapting to the changing needs of our growing diverse population and ensuring everyone has a voice in decisions that affect them. 

The ability to share baseball with the community through stadium lights and evening games will create an inclusive and connected community. Our club diversity reflects the area we service with multiple groups represented.

Our environment


Upper Harbour is an area with unique natural landscapes. We will continue to work alongside our volunteers and community to enhance and protect our natural environment. 

Due to the infield being turf, the types of lights we are suggesting do not lead to excessive wear and tear on grass. The way they are built are designed not to bother neighbours.

Our community


Our commitment is to provide access to well-maintained sports fields, parks, coastal amenities, and community facilities for everyone.

The quality stadium lights will improve the facilities of Te Kori Scott Point. It will make sport more accessible by having evening games and training available, and it will bring together the community.

Our places


With better planning and appropriate infrastructure, we aspire to create an area that allows our residents to easily connect between each other and within their neighbourhoods. 

The stadium lights will enable Te Kori Scott Point to be more accessible in the evening, allowing for better connection with neighbours. Night games and tournaments will bring the community together in one place to watch and connect

Our economy


We will continue to support our local businesses and communities to create a thriving, resilient and sustainable economy. 

By having local vendors available on night games or at tournaments, we will be supporting the local economy. Events bring people together and they’re more likely to spend money on local business, when they’re spending time locally.


This proposal also aligns with the Sport New Zealand Every Body Active Strategic Plan[3].

“In 2017, Sport NZ published a study exploring The Value of Sport.  We concluded that Sport and Active Recreation create happier, healthier people, better connected communities and a stronger Aotearoa New Zealand.”

The Value of Physical Activity

Supporting Statistics

How this proposal aligns with these statements

Happier, Healthier People

  • 89% Agree that being active helps relieve stress and is good for mental health

  • There is a positive association between sport participation and higher academic performance, attendance rates and less lateness and stand downs

Having quality stadium lights ensure there is more accessibility to physical activity and participating in sports. Some people miss out on playing as they cannot make earlier training times due to work commitments.


Having evening trainings and sharing the sport with people during evenings provides more awareness for the sport.

Better, Connected Communities

  • 77% Agree that sport and physical activities help instil a sense of pride in our communities

  • There is a link between sport participation, improved social capital, feelings of social cohesion and community identity

  • Sport and recreation programming can reduce the incidence of antisocial behaviour.

By providing more accessibility to sports and showcasing evening games, we are bringing sport activities and events to the community.


This helps people to come together to support members of their community and supports the claims of small-town togetherness being centred around sporting activities.


Lights will create events out of sport, and encourage more people to watch and play sport.

A stronger Aotearoa New Zealand

  • Agree that sport and other physical activities generate economic benefits for communities

  • In 2015, 29% of recent migrants identified recreation and leisure activities as their main reasons for coming to Aotearoa New Zealand.

With sport happening locally, people watching evening games for example are going to invest their money in the local economy.


We can make our migrant community feel more welcome and build connections through sport.


For the community

Theresa is a parent of Jian, a player in our U16 team.

Theresa and her family migrated to Auckland from South Africa in 2020, only two weeks prior to lockdown. After moving three times in two years during the height of the pandemic, they found settling in Aotearoa quite difficult. Theresa shared with us the impact that baseball had on their journey in settling here in Aotearoa:

“When the summer season started again in 2022, Jian was very keen to give baseball a go. He just really loved it! He joined the team and has been playing since 2022. He has made friends, and this club has really become part of our family.”

Theresa is now more than a parent of a player; she also volunteers with the club as the administrator. We have many more stories like Theresa’s because at the end of the day, our club is one big whānau.

Having stadium lights will give us the opportunity to share our sport with more people, open up possibilities for more community connections and encourage more participation in physical activity.


Breakdown

We are seeking funding to install quality stadium lights at Te Kori Scott Point, Hobsonville Point, which comes to a total of $280,000. If you can help, please get in touch: president@nscbaseball.co.nz

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