Council chasing external funding for new Mangakino Sportsground lights

While Mangakino’s rugby players have been busy chasing rugby balls, Taupō District Council has been busy chasing different ways to provide better playing facilities for them.

Council is currently pursuing a project to extend and upgrade the lights at the Mangakino Rugby Sportsgrounds and today this took another step forward when councillors gave staff the green light to submit formal applications to different funding providers. The aim is to secure the $122,550 needed to fund the lights project.

Council staff intend to apply to the New Zealand Rugby Legacy Fund and Sports New Zealand Grassroots Spaces & Places Fund for the money to purchase the new lights.

The current sportsground lighting is limited and uneven. The lighting project will include new poles, LED floodlights, foundations and electrical infrastructure, allowing more of the sportsgrounds to be safely and reliably used for playing and training after dark.

The Mangakino sportsgrounds are used not just by local rugby players but also by the King Country Rugby Union as a central hub for age-grade and senior representative rugby. In 2025, the venue recorded over 71,000 visits.

The upgrade will have flow-on benefits to basketball too because the existing lights, once replaced, could be relocated to Mangakino’s popular basketball court. The court is currently used in the evenings but participants are forced to park cars around the perimeter and play by car headlight.

Mangakino-Pouakani councillor Hope Woodward has welcomed the project, saying she hopes the funding can be secured to allow it to go ahead.

“Our Mangakino rugby grounds have been desperately needing these lights for so long and we’re hoping to use the old lights to light up our basketball court, so this is a project that will benefit another part of the community too.”

Because the lighting project isn’t currently included in council’s budget, staff are looking for external funding so that the costs to purchase and install the lights do not fall on ratepayers. Once installed, the bulk of the ongoing cost of the lights would be for depreciation. The cost of extra LED bulbs is expected to be minimal and able to be met from within existing council budgets.

If the funding applications are successful, new lights could be in place in time for the 2027 winter rugby season.