Taupō is well known for its glamour events on the lakefront, but locals know the hard mahi goes on behind the scenes at Owen Delany Park.

**A render of what the new building at Owen Delany Park will look like once complete.**

Every week hundreds, sometimes thousands of children, parents, club players and age group rep’s make their way out to the park to practise their sport or pit their skills against opposing teams.

The main ground, home of King Country Rugby and various other sports, has a typical provincial grandstand, with embankments for a few thousand supporters on a busy day.

Towering above all this is a clue to higher ambitions – broadcast quality lights above the main field, allowing night games or practise, depending on the budget and occasion.

The lights, installed in 2024, are Stage One of a major master plan of improvement work, says Taupō District Council Events and Venues manager Steve Giles.

Stage 2 is a community hub currently under construction below and adjacent to the main sports field, looking over all the other fields that are used for community sport.

It provides eight changing rooms and a large club room space, with room for players and their parents and supporters to shelter from the elements and take in the action and for functions and events.

The new building comes at a cost of $5.3 million.

Councillor Rachel Cameron is part of the project steering group and says the project has been made possible with external funding.

“For several years now, we have been seeking external funding for our larger projects, and Owen Delany Park is a great example of this.”

The money for the build is coming from the government’s Better Off Funding, the NZ Lottery Grant Board and the NZ Community Gaming Trust.

Next on the wish list is an upgrade of the scoreboard on the main ground and Rachel says they have launched a fundraising campaign called First 14 to be part of this.

“Not First 11 or First 15 - but First 14 because there are 14 sports codes that use the Park – everything from netball to archery and of course cricket and rugby.”

The council is looking for sponsors to contribute to the new score board.

“You’ll get your name up on the board, so if you or your organisation wants to be a part of this fantastic project then get in touch,” Rachel says.

The new changing rooms will be of particular benefit to women’s sport, which has had a huge increase in recent years, the council says in a statement.

In general, the park caters for a staggering number of visitors.

Sport Waikato chief executive Matthew Cooper says there has been more than 600,000 visitors to Owen Delany Park over the past 12 months, including domestic players coming to practise or play or visiting teams coming from around the country.

“And, of course, we can’t forget the man behind this stadium Owen Delany. I was very fortunate to have the opportunity to know Owen well, and it’s so good to see his legacy, what he dreamt of, what he wanted, being carried forward. He’d be looking down here, smiling today,” Matthew says.

Car parking is also being upgraded, and plans are underway to seismically strengthen the stadium’s main stands.

Owen died in June 2000, at the age of 78.

The late Bevan Coat – a long-serving sports reporter in the district wrote in 2023 that Delaney was referred to as ‘Mr Rugby’ and regarded as “the father of sport in the district and a Taupō sporting pioneer”.

He helped create a cricket and rugby fraternity in Taupō and was instrumental in funding the park that now bears his name, by encouraging the council and others to get involved.

“His sporting background and tireless enthusiasm for promoting sport and encouraging people to become involved helped shape sports in Taupō, particularly cricket, athletics, boxing and rugby from the moment he set foot in the town,” Bevan wrote.

His son Barry Delany remembers Dad bringing him out to the site when he was 12 and standing across the road by the dog park saying, ‘this is where the park's going to be’.

“It was called the park because it didn't have a name at that stage.

“Council was struggling to be supportive initially but did become massively involved after a lot of fundraising and the New Zealand Rugby Union got involved and eventually the park ended up on this side of the road.

“There was a lot of vision, not only dads but a lot of other people with him. For example, I remember we were asked as rugby players to go and plant some pine trees on a Sunday morning – all of us with hangovers.”

The agreement with council over the pine trees was when they matured, they would harvest them and put the money back into the park.

He says the new development is necessary for the “wide and varied amount of people” that use the grounds.

“It's getting much, much more use than it ever has.”

Owen’s daughter Judith McGreevy says her dad used to bring them out to park, which was covered in forest at the time and say, ‘That's going to be a sports park’.

“And it was a bit hard to believe because it was a hunting ground, everyone was coming out here pig hunting.

“But there was no stopping Dad, he did a lot of fundraising and (councillor) Rex Hawkins and (Mayor) Joan Williamson, and a lot of other councillors, pushed to have it named as Owen Delany because Dad did a lot of fundraising for it.”