Video: Hefty fine may be a way to stop pitch invasions at Mclean Park, says Napier City Council's events manager
Hefty fines maybe a way to stop pitch invasions at Mclean Park, says Napier City Council’s events manager, Kevin Murphy.
At the weekned, Napier's McLean Park played host to the eagerly awaited NRL match between the Warriors vs Broncos.
The Broncos winning 26-22 wasn't the only sour note however, as 12 pitch invaders put the region’s future of holding similar games at risk.
Murphy says the council had been “chasing” the fixture since 2015.en chasing the game since 2015,
“It was great to be able to finally deliver the game, and we had 16,000, full house. We've got probably about 6,000 visitors in town over the weekend, so it was an awesome night, and then we had a little bit of bedlam at the end of it.”
Murphy says it is really frustrating and “gutting” to see this happen.
“Of course, it's happened at a few other stadiums around the country, and we really need to make a few changes.”
“The NRL treat their brand and they want to uphold what they do in the way of delivering their events, and from our point of view getting a game allocated to Napier hasn't happened ever, and we want to be able to host something in the future. The NRL will look at this and say should they do that in the end, and it will jeopardize the potential for us to host again.”
“At the moment there were eight of the pitch invaders that got taken into custody, and they'll get a trespass notice for two years, but there's no fine or anything, any other action, that will come from that.”
“If you compare that with Australia, they've had in place for a number of years now a fine of $10,000 if you invade a pitch at a football or any sort of game, and that's the sort of thing that we need to see in New Zealand.”
“At the moment we have it for the major events, so the likes of the Football World Cup, and when we've had Rugby World Cup and Cricket World Cup there's a $5,000 fine or a three-month imprisonment clause, but for these sort of games that happen on a regular basis around the country and stadiums, we don't have anything like that.”
Murphy says something needs to be put in place to deter pitch invaders from continuing to “cause havoc”.
