History of Pioneer

In 1970 the Christchurch City Council approved in principle that Centennial Park in Spreydon was to be the site of an indoor stadium and pool complex. However, the project did not commence until 1976 because of the City Council’s financial commitment with 1974 Commonwealth Games. As a result of the generous donation from the Pioneer Amateur Sports Club, work on the stadium began in 1976. This site, Centennial Park was originally a landfill site for the City - for years glass was being extracted from the playing fields. It was also the dumping ground for the Ballantyne’s fire debris in 1947. When construction for the new complex commenced in 1997, the construction company opened the site for a few hours every Saturday morning for the collectors to dig for bottles and antique items.

The Pioneer Amateur Sports Club contributed 98 years of sporting life to Christchurch. When the club was disbanded and the premises sold, the proceeds were gifted to the City Council. This premises is now the site of the Central City Library. To commemorate the Pioneer Amateur Sports Club and the generosity of the members, the new stadium was therefore named Pioneer Sports Stadium.

The original plan for the recreation complex consisted of a three stage development.

Stage I: building of an Indoor Stadium and squash courts

Stages II and III: building of a swimming pool and paddling pool respectively

Pioneer Sports Stadium was officially opened on 28th October 1978 by Alan Highet, Minister of Recreation and Sport. The multi purpose recreation facility was able to accommodate a variety of sports and activities. The facility consisted of an indoor stadium catering for three full size basketball or netball courts or six volleyball courts, or 12 badminton courts or one tennis court, four squash courts, kitchen, lounge and viewing gallery. The outside grounds included car parking and four tennis courts.

Pioneer Stadium soon became a well patronised venue, providing facilities for indoor sports competitions for basketball and volleyball. It didn’t take long for Pioneer to take on the reputation as the "home of volleyball". Council recreation programmes were run for trampolining, badminton, squash tuition, tennis coaching, running group, pre-school and after school gymnastics programmes. Table tennis and indoor bowls were additional options offered for hire on the gallery. Exercise classes were introduced and first held in the main stadium. As the demand for court space increased, the exercise/aerobic classes were moved up to the gallery. The facility also hosted numerous shows and events annually - some of the most notable including:

The Pioneer play school was started by a group of mothers who regularly attended the morning badminton programme soon after the opening of the Stadium. The mothers would take turns to sit out of a session to look after the pre-school children while the others played. These mothers approached the Manager in hope that the Council would provide a playgroup. As there was no money in the budget for this, the lounge was offered to them for a place to go. With some fundraising and inventive mothers, the playgroup started with four mornings a week, but this was strictly for mothers attending programmes at the facility. Each morning the equipment was put out and at the end of the morning, was stacked away in the corner. As demand for this service grew, the Council applied for some funding and a licence to run the group. The sessions were then run by Christchurch City Council and opened up to the general public. The Crèche operated mornings only from the lounge until 1999 when the new Pioneer Early Learning Centre was opened.

Pioneer’s first Fitness Centre was opened in 1997 in the converted women’s changing rooms. This was fully patronized until 1999 when Stage II was opened.

In 1999 Pioneer Stadium was transformed into the Pioneer Leisure Centre completing Stage II and III of the original plan. Now a modern recreation and aquatic facility, it is a fantastic destination for sport and family entertainment. The Centre’s new features include a fun leisure pool with a wave machine, lazy river and water effects, spa, sauna and steam room all poolside, along with a separate 5 lane lap 25m pool, a Fitness Centre with Aerobics Studio and Early Learning Centre.

Other partners / users of the facility include: monthly meetings for the Canterbury Mountaineering Club, Pioneer Motorcycle Club, a Cafe’ (opened in 2000), Canterbury Volleyball Association, Sheiki Shin Do Martial Arts (since 1991), Southern Institute of Technology Sports & Fitness, PhysioSouth (1999) and Weight Watchers (weekly meetings since 2002.

In 2003 the stadium was fully insulated. The gallery was glassed in and folding doors installed to give three separate rooms or opened up into the full gallery as one area.

On the 11th October 2008 the new fitness area was opened. This includes a bigger and more modern Fitness Centre with state of the art equipment, Spin Room, Mind Body Room and redecorated Aerobics Studio. To make way for this expansion, the squash courts were removed. The centre now has a specific membership / retail shop and a Swimsmart booking office.