Three shortlisted for cycling centre of excellence

Media Release

For release Thursday 10 March, 2011

Three bids make short-list to develop cycling centre of excellence

Sport and Recreation New Zealand (SPARC) has selected a short-list of three regions from which one will be chosen to develop a national cycling centre of excellence.

The three regions are Auckland, Palmerston North and Waikato/Bay of Plenty.

Last year the Government announced plans to work with partners to develop a centre of excellence for cycling, which will include a world-class indoor velodrome as well as community facilities.

On 11 February, 2011 SPARC announced it had received tenders from seven regions to develop the national cycling centre of excellence. These were Auckland, Waikato/Bay of Plenty, Taupo, Hawke’s Bay, Wanganui, Palmerston North and Christchurch.

SPARC Chief Executive Peter Miskimmin said today that all the tenders had been through a robust and exhaustive evaluation process, which had assessed technical and commercial aspects of the bids. Senior personnel from BikeNZ, independent external organisations and SPARC were on the evaluation teams.

Miskimmin said that because the velodrome was required to meet stringent international specifications, there were many similarities in the technical aspects of the tenders.

``Differences were more evident in the commercial evaluation, once the ownership structures and funding models were assessed,’’ he said.

Miskimmin said the three short-listed tenders would now be further evaluated and this would include presentations to the evaluation teams as well as site visits.

A preferred tenderer is to be advised in April, and the successful bidder will be announced in early May.

Because the process has yet to be completed, SPARC is not in a position to comment on any specifics in relation to any of the bids.

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