City Council leaves Papatoetoe RSC from New Zealand without Rink

The greatest Roller Hockey Club from New Zealand will not have Rink to play

One of the last matches at the NZ Roller Hockey Cathedral

Council force the successful community based sporting clubs - Papatoetoe Roller Sports Club, Sabres Inline Hockey Club and Auckland Roller Derby League - to look elsewhere for the future. 
Since 1963 The Papatoetoe Roller Sports Club has been operating in Wallace Road Papatoetoe.
The building is used every night of the week and most weekends, by more than three clubs and the public. The Papatoetoe Roller Sports Club is the most successful Roller Hockey Club in NZ History and also is the current holder of the NZ Club Champions Trophy. 
The local community board is going to use the buildings current location as a new road to allow 
access to more apartment and housing developments planned in the near future. The Clubs 
have not seen any plans and are unaware of the timeline suggested, although they have been 
told that the building must come down in May 2013.
With no other participating groups for these community minded sports in the South Auckland 
district, the council’s decision to move the groups away from this site makes finding a new 
venue extremely hard for all. And to make the blow even harder, they are removing genuine 
success from the area.

Image of the Rink

Going further down, this decision by the Council will put an unnecessary strain on the national association, as all the clubs affected by the demolition of this purpose built facility are at the top of their disciplines. 
The sporting arena has housed many teams and clubs at all levels but the forgotten users are 
the all-important kids and families from the local community. They will fare the worst from this decision, as the weekly ritual of going down to the (rink) for a skate, or going to learn to skate classes held on Wednesdays will no longer be available.
For all the thousands of local community users that have access to this building for more than fifty years - not only recreational and competitive skating, but other functions as well – the 
question arises “where too from now?”
The Council has not presented any relocation options for the Clubs or offered any financial 
assistance, even though the building is owned by the Papatoetoe Roller Sports Club. These 
Clubs are now being forced to look outside of their home community as they attempt to find a 
suitable facility, which will be a near impossible task given that the building requirement of 
more than 40 metres x 30 metres with no internal roof support posts, is a rare construction 
indeed.

Papatoetoe Easter Tournament 2013

The Papatoetoe Club will be holding a farewell Tournament at Easter Weekend 2013 and has asked for all those skaters that have skated their or have fond memories of the club to come down and join in on the last weekend. This tournament will be the last at the "old" rink, and will happen from 29th to 31st March.  See more details on the Facebook event.

Invitation for all interested people

 



Opinion: It's not the first time that public authorities underrate our sport, but once again even if our sport it's not one of the biggest in the World, it history, tradition and beauty deserve respect.
The World can't be made only by major sports... 

Respect for Roller Hockey

More info at: 
Papatoetoe Roller Sport Club Facebook Page
http://www.rinkhockeynz.com

Source of info (don't forget to put a "like" on this news):
http://www.scoop.co.nz
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