Eden Park will have a new cricket scoreboard for the England tour
matches next
summer -- and North Harbour may also have a second-hand bargain.
This week the big main scoreboard at Eden Park will be transported
across the
Harbour Bridge to the North Harbour Stadium, to make way for a new
public
information system on Eden Park No 1.
The Eden Park Trust Board has given the old scoreboard to North Harbour
free of
charge, but North Harbour will need $40-50,000 for transport and
installation costs.
At Eden Park, a new 70 square metre screen will be perched on top of the
West Stand
(basically where the action-replay screen has been sited) with a smaller
new screen
being pitched at the eastern end of the ground, about the same site as
the old board.
This may or may not be the end of the long and very expensive process
to get the
Eden Park cricket scoreboard working to full satisfaction.
The old framework scoreboard disappeared when the western terraces were
built and a
new, large and manual board was installed at the northern end of the
original west
stand.
In 1985 this was changed to a new computerised scoreboard, largely
financed by the
then Auckland Savings Bank and the rumoured cost was $600,000.
But then the problems started. The lettering on the new board was not
totally visible,
or satisfactory.
The face of the scoreboard was redesigned.
Then there were problems with shadows, and the face of the board was
re-aligned.
With the building of the new West Stand in 1992, the board was shifted
to the western
end of the ground.
This was regarded as a better site, for the sunlight was more direct.
But this also
caused problems for when the sun was shining brightly it highlighted the
trim around
the numbers, which tended to make them hard to decipher.
Warwick Lovell, the Eden Park manager, said the suppliers and
contractors had been
very co-operative over the years in making improvements to the existing
scoreboard.
The new scoreboard was not likely to present the same problems, as it
will be a
high-quality replay screen designed by Clipsal, and will give a very
clear picture.
However, Eden Park spectators will not be supplied with all the
information that the
old traditional scoreboard offered, and which is still available at
WestpacTrust Park in
Hamilton and the Basin Reserve in Wellington.
Wayne Scurrah, the North Harbour Stadium chief executive, praised Eden
Park for its
generosity in giving them the second-hand board.
"There will still be a lot of work to do in having the new scoreboard
installed," said
Scurrah, "and I am not too sure whether we should be saying too much
until all the
details have been worked out."
These include the moving of the scoreboard to North Harbour, the
building of new
footings for the site at the Massey University end of the stadium, and
having all the
engineering and electrical work completed satisfactorily.
If these details and resource consents are all completed without fuss
and delay Scurrah
hoped the new board could be working in a month or two.
Until now North Harbour have had only a very basic rugby scoreboard at
the Massey
end of the ground.
"The old scoreboard was definitely not up to scratch," said Scurrah.
"The new one will
be a big improvement. When the North Harbour rugby team scores a century
we will
have three numbers available to show that."