Games at an indoor netball tournament at Christchurch's Netsal building at Ngā Puna Wai sports hub were delayed due to humidity causing slippery surfaces. Photo: SANKA VIDANAGAMA
Netball games at the Christchurch Netball Centre have been disrupted by humid conditions, which left players slipping and sliding on courts.
More than 1000 people took part in the New Zealand Men's and Mixed Netball Association tournament over Easter weekend at the Netsal building at Ngā Puna Wai sports hub.
Association secretary John Kingi said teams noticed the court surface was slippery during their warm-up on Good Friday.
"Players were trying to stop their movements, change direction on court, and were sliding on the surface," he said.
"There were games where some of our teams were having to move courts three or four times within one game, which is certainly not ideal.
"Obviously the health and safety of our players and our officials is our first priority, so we had to pretty quickly try to identify what the issue was and work to mitigate that with Ngā Puna Wai and the netball centre staff."
Kingi said moisture was noticeable on the building's concrete walls.
All games were delayed by an hour while the courts were dried off.
Kingi said the problem persisted the following day, so tournament spectators were not allowed court-side but could watch games from the mezzanine.
"That noticeably reduced the humidity factor," he said.
The disruption meant some games could not be livestreamed because not all of the centre's courts had livestream capability.
Netball centre staff cancelled other bookings so the association could have "contingency courts" if the issue continued over the weekend, but the moisture only affected the first day-and-a-half of the tournament, Kingi said.
"In spite of the challenges, no games were cancelled. All games went ahead, albeit they might have been delayed slightly. Ultimately, we had a successful tournament."
The $13 million Netsal building opened in November 2023.
Netball centre general manager Angela Prior said the moisture was the result of humid conditions.
"Over the weekend Christchurch experienced higher levels of humidity than it usually does.
"What that resulted in was a little bit of extra moisture in the building which did adhere to some of the surfaces including the courts," she said.
"Our facility team acted really quickly to ensure player and umpire safety by moving some of the games and making sure the courts were safe."
Prior said disruption was kept to a minimum, with play finishing an hour later than planned on the first day.
Games were postponed and the netball centre was temporarily closed last May when water appeared on the courts during bad weather.
At the time, the netball centre said extreme fluctuations in temperatures had produced moisture, but the building's construction company Apollo was working on a solution.
Prior said last year's issue differed to the Easter weekend disruption.
"That was due to a change in temperature across the different season, that wasn't due to humidity affecting the courts," she said.
"This is the first time that we've had humidity levels like this that have impacted the floors. There was condensation on the walls, which is wetness on the walls, but our entire building isn't damp.
"In winter we're unlikely to get those same levels of humidity. It's a shoulder season weather pattern, so we don't expect it to be an issue in winter, just like it wasn't an issue in winter last year."
Asked about the building's weathertightness, Prior referred RNZ to construction company Apollo, which in turn referred RNZ back to the netball centre.
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