Billionaires Bill Foley and Anna Mowbray and the former New Zealand national rugby union team All Blacks Ali Williams (retired New Zealand rugby union player) are believed to have drawn up plans to turn Auckland’s (New Zealand) Western Springs (suburbs) into the permanent home of their new Auckland FC A-League franchise.
‘Stuff’ stated that their proposal for a new 8,000-capacity football stadium at the site is likely to mean the end of the tenure of the two historic sporting clubs – the Ponsonby Rugby (a rugby union club based in Auckland) and the Western Springs Speedway (stadium in Auckland which has been used as a speedway since November 30th, 1929). The venue, six km from the City Centre, also has a history of hosting major rock concerts including The Rolling Stones (English rock band) and David Bowie (English singer-songwriter and musician).
The New Zealand national rugby union team, commonly known as the All Blacks, represents New Zealand in the men’s international rugby union which is considered the country’s national sport. Famed for their international success the All Blacks have often been regarded as one of the most successful sports teams in history.
The 60,000-capacity Eden Park is a sports venue in Auckland, New Zealand. It is located three kilometers Southwest of the Auckland Central Business District (CBD on the boundary between the suburbs of Mount Eden and Kingsland. It serves as the home arena of the All Blacks.
The Auckland Football Club is a professional football club based in Auckland, New Zealand, that competes in the A-League Men, the top flight of Australian soccer. Established on March 14th, 2024 as the Auckland FC the club is under license from the Australian Professional Leagues (the governing body for the A-League Men). The club’s home ground is the Mount Smart Stadium in Penrose.
The 25,000-capacity Mount Smart Stadium, currently known as the Go Media Stadium for sponsorship reasons, is a multipurpose stadium in Auckland, New Zealand. It serves as the home stadium of the Auckland FC.
‘Stuff’ further stated that Mowbray and Williams married recently in Fiji.
About the proposed stadium, Mowbray stated, “No comment from our side.”
Williams is understood to be the driver behind the plans for a ‘home of football’ at Western Springs with a source stating that he had tabled a “very impressive proposal” which was “the most likely track” the Council would take for the stadium.
The plans would see a complete rebuild of the main stadium, provision for new futsal and indoor basketball courts and precinct-building work to link the stadium better to the neighboring Western Springs parkland and zoo.
The Auckland FC could still take the bigger games to the Mount Smart Stadium or, eventually, the proposed new waterfront stadium.
The Western Springs’ outer fields, presently used for rugby, would be renovated and turned over to football – principally for the nearby Western Springs AFC (an association football club in Westmere, Auckland), which is oversubscribed and thought to be the largest single sporting club in New Zealand for playing numbers. The pitches would also be used by the Northern Region Football (a not-for-profit Incorporated Society formed from the merger of the Auckland and Northern football federations in May 2022) and the New Zealand Football (the governing body for the sport of association football in New Zealand). In Summer, they could be used as outgrounds for the Grafton United Cricket Club (one of New Zealand’s oldest and largest cricket clubs) which is headquartered at the City Centre’s Victoria Park.
Work could begin at the end of 2025 with the rugby and speedway leases due to expire.
The plan would see Ponsonby moved to the Cox’s Bay Reserve (a large and popular reserve with sports fields) where its existing three fields would be increased to four and new clubrooms and changing block constructed.
The Speedway would be shifted in April 2025 to share the existing speedway track at the Waikaraka Park (a 14 hectare park with a speedway track, eight winter sports fields and seven cricket wickets) in Onehunga, Auckland.
The plans won’t be announced until they are presented to a full Auckland Council meeting probably next month.
In June, the Tātaki Auckland Unlimited (TAU), the Auckland Council’s events and venues arm, put out a tender for “organizations and potential capital partners outlining their ideas on how the Western Springs Stadium could best contribute to meeting Auckland’s sports, entertainment and festival needs into the future.”
The Ponsonby Board Member Dave Atkins said the TAU had conducted an extensive feasibility study on the proposed move to Cox’s Bay. He was worried the park would not have enough field capacity for all their teams.
Observed Atkins, “It’s a sensitive issue for us. The Council has told us they are not going to renew our lease. We’ve got to figure out what we will do if Auckland football goes in: Ali Williams is one of the shareholders and he’s a Ponsonby old boy so we are going to try and see if he will let us co-exist. We don’t know what the timing will be.”
Atkins said some Ponsonby Board Members had met with Williams some time ago and Atkins hoped the club could have a “flexible and constructive conversation with him”.
Williams, who won 61 caps for the All Blacks, played club rugby for Ponsonby before he was first selected for Auckland and was coached in their premier side by Atkins.
Asked about the stadium concept, the Ponsonby President Bryan ‘Beegee’ Williams, the former All Black, said, “I have heard those rumors but I don’t know the detail. There are lots of things happening in the background at the moment but there is a process going on at the moment with the Auckland Unlimited and we are just waiting to see what the outcome is. Ultimately, it will be a recommendation from the Auckland Unlimited and the Council will make a decision and we have to go through that process before we make any comments.”
Speedway has been held at the Western Springs since 1929 but has had to fight off several attempts to rehome it over the past decade.
Added John McCallum, Speedway General Manager, “We’ve all heard those rumors as well but the Auckland FC would be the best placed to answer them.”
Remarked James Parkinson, Auckland Stadiums (a division of Auckland Unlimited that manages Auckland’s regional stadiums) Director, “Its public knowledge that we have run an expression of interest process. That process is still ongoing and we are due to provide an update to our Board at the end of October. Beyond that, there is nothing to speak to until that process has been completed.”
Parkinson replied on whether the Auckland FC had bid in the tender process, “It would be inappropriate to speak … it’s a confidential process and it’s not for us to disclose who the parties are.”
Auckland FC would certainly not be short of the funds to build a new stadium: Foley, who also owns football teams in Las Vegas (US), England (UK), Scotland (UK), and France, has an estimated net worth of $2.1bn, according to Forbes. The National Business Review (NBR) estimated in 2023 that the three Mowbray siblings – Anna, Nick and Matt, who founded the Zuru Toys empire, had a combined net worth of $3 billion.
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