AMI NORTH HARBOUR NETBALL with Adele Lendich

FOR SALE: 300 bricks

As you will have seen in the “Out & About on the Shore” pages earlier in Channel, we kicked off our fundraising campaign this month to top-up the funding required to build our new indoor netball facility. We have 80% of the funding and now we need to raise the $300,000 shortfall.
Adele Lendich This is the first time in over 20 years that Netball North Harbour has gone to the public to provide financial assistance. We feel that this is fully justified as this new indoor facility will provide enormous benefits to the community. In a nutshell what we are looking for is 300 companies or individuals to purchase a ‘brick’ to the value of $1000.
As well as being the North Shore’s busiest sporting venue, our AMI Netball Centre is used as a venue for many community and private events throughout the year. These include business group workshops, weddings, exhibitions, shows, floral events, church groups, community groups etc. Tennis is also played at the centre in the summer. While the focus for the new indoor facility is Netball, the wider community will also benefit from its construction.
So why the need for covered courts you might ask? At the moment we are unable to host our elite netballers at the AMI Netball Centre. There is a requirement that all these top level netball games are played indoors. Once we have our indoor covered courts then we can have a large percentage of our premier games on site here at AMI. It will be fantastic. The new facility will also be fully compliant with the International Federation Netball Association (IFNA) requirements, standards which our courts currently don’t meet. The indoor courts will be compliant for basketball, volleyball and tennis as well.
While the initial plan and budget does not include extra seating, spectators will get a fantastic and elevated view through the large glass windows from the existing AMI Netball Centre building. For major events we will bring in additional bleachers/seating as it is required.
The project designer is Allan Taylor of Allan Taylor Architects, with the project managed by N’Compass, a company that has recently overseen a similar construction at Netball Waitakere. It will have solid sides with a stretched skin canopy. Resource consent has been granted and with building consent coming through on schedule (hopefully!) we should be able to start construction in November with completion in February/March. Our requirement is that it is all built and all go for the start of the 2011 netball season on May 1st.
So make sure you buy your brick! It will be a great investment in the future of Netball on the Shore and you will have your name on your brick forever. So a big thanks to those of you who do partake. Also a big thanks to the organisations who have contributed 80% of the funding to make this project happen – AMI, the North Shore City Council and the NZ Lotteries Board.