Sideline Sid Sports correspondent & historian www.sunlive.co.nz

A chance visit to the Tauranga Domain last Saturday got this writer thinking again about the choice of venue for the proposed new sports stadium in Tauranga.

My personal opinion had been that the proposed stadium should be built at the more central Western Bay of Plenty of Blake Park, rather than the preferred option of redeveloping the Tauranga Domain.

However, I was forced to have a rethink, after the chance to watch the Bay of Plenty Rugby Development team in action took me to the scheduled venue at the Domain, which remained empty after the match was switched to Blake Park.

The current Bay of Plenty Steamers home headquarters was set up for the Bay sides National Provincial Championship encounter with Counties Manukau the following day.

The ground looked a treat and provided a snapshot of what a new Tauranga Domain stadium could look like.

Sport at the start of Cameron Road has been played for near 150 years, since 1873, when a group of Tauranga residents applied to the government minister for a public park in Tauranga.

Although their first choice was an area between Huria Marae and the newly formed road to Waihi, the government handed over the more central area where the Tauranga Domain is now situated.

Cricket was the first sport played at the Tauranga Domain, with the Tauranga Cricket Club formed in 1873.

Later that year, the newly formed Tauranga Domain Board allocated the Tauranga Cricket Club two acres to play their games at the domain.

Rugby was a later addition at the Tauranga Domain.

The first reported game in the region was played between the Tauranga County Football Club and the Katikati Rugby Club on June 28, 1880.

The match was played at Hunters Paddock in Katikati around where the Seeka packhouse is today.

For history buffs, it's interesting to note that some of the 'Taurangaites" travelled to Katikati on Friday by horse and dray, with the remainder going by Steamer which journeyed up the Uretara river the next morning, taking the goalposts and flags with them.

While major cricket and rugby games bypassed Tauranga, two high profile matches during the 1970's put the Tauranga Domain in the limelight.

The 1971 British Lions squared off with Bay of Plenty at the domain, breaking the tradition of touring national rugby sides playing their Bay of Plenty fixtures in Rotorua.

The Bay of Plenty Times reported that a crowd of 23,000 rugby fans packed like sardines into the Tauranga Domain on August 10, 1971, to watch the Lions in action, with the home side gallant in a 20 points to 14 defeat.

Some seven years later, some of the best cricket players in the world played at the Tauranga Domain, when Kerry Packer's World Series Cricket came to town.

Never before had such a galaxy of stars appeared in Tauranga.

WSC Australia featured such as Dennis Lillee, Greg and Ian Chapell, David Hookes and Rod Marsh.

Tony Greig skippered the WSC World XI, with stars like Barry Richards, Lawrence Rowe, Michael Proctor, John Snow and New Zealand's own super-star Richard Hadlee.

Here's my idea for a new cost effective Tauranga Domain Stadium.

Get rid of the running track, which has been an impediment to rugby at the domain ever since it was put in place over a decade ago.

Leave the current temporary stand on the Cameron Road side of the ground in place.

Bowl over the current grandstand and replace it with a new structure that has plenty of changing room space for the professional rugby era with their big travelling circuses – problem solved.