With more than 10,000 visitors each week, the Marlborough Lines Stadium 2000 is the busiest public facility in Blenheim.
The state of the art complex houses world-class indoor courts and a squash complex, a fully equipped gymnasium, three 25 metre swimming pools, a recreational swimming pool, spa, sauna and cafe, and is the envy of many other New Zealand centres.
The facility is managed by the Marlborough Lines Stadium 2000 Trust, which was established in the late 90s with the goal of developing the new stadium as part of a series of projects which rolled out in the new millennium.
As treasurer of the trust, WK director Matt Kerr has provided governance support including financial strategy, setting and monitoring the budgets and working closely with the CEO for more than 10 years, helping successfully navigate the stadium through many high-level changes.
It’s a voluntary role which takes up a lot of his spare time, but Matt says it’s something he’s passionate about and he’s proud to be a part of a team that delivers such a valuable service to the community.
“The stadium is of Olympic quality – any indoor sports team in the world would be happy to play here, we’re very lucky to have such great facilities,” Matt says.
“The great thing about it is how well utilised it is. Because we’re not driven by profit we’ve been able to use our funds really well to remove barriers and put systems in place to make it a friendly and inclusive place.”
The trust decided to make the stadium free for school age children to train and play on, a result of one of many feasibility studies carried out by the trust which aims to continually improve their offerings to the community while improving efficiencies and reducing running costs.
Currently they are rolling out new LED lighting throughout the complex, and have just purchased their own chlorine machine – both big-budget feasibility projects that Matt has been involved with, that will save the trust thousands of dollars in the long run.
The trust’s chief executive Paul Tredinnick has been managing the stadium for 16 years, and said the service provided by WK has been unerringly accurate and professional over the years.
“It’s been hugely helpful to have Matt’s professionalism and experience as an advisor and accountant on the board,” Paul says. “His personal attributes and integrity have been invaluable to the trust and as a mentor and advisor to myself.”
Matt is a lucky bloke being able to match his passions of sailing and sport with his directorship role at Port Marlborough and trustee and leadership position with the stadium trust.
As part of his governance role, Matt, who is also a member of the Institute of Directors of New Zealand provides a measured and calculated sounding board for Paul.
“CEO can be a lonely job, Paul and I catch up every week for a walk about to chat about how things are going, what’s coming up and plans for the future.”
All WK directors and senior staff are supported by WK to volunteer their financial expertise to help a wide variety of local non-profit organisations, which Paul says reflects the professionalism and well-grounded nature of WK.
“Not only are they bloody good at what they do, they are keen to give back to the community – we are very lucky to have Matt on board.”