Queen Elizabeth Youth Centre

Queen Elizabeth Youth Centre — usually shortened to QEYC — is a multi-purpose indoor sports and entertainment centre at 111 Devonport Road, Tauranga, on the corner of Devonport Road and Eleventh Avenue within Memorial Park. It is operated by Bay Venues, the council-controlled organisation that runs Tauranga's community and event facilities.

The building

The main indoor space is made up of two full-sized courts, with a further full-sized court in Memorial Hall inside the same building. Floors are marked for basketball, netball, volleyball, badminton and roller derby. Grandstand seating caters for more than 850 spectators, and the centre has a maximum capacity of 2,580 following renovations completed in 2006.

Event capability

QEYC is hired for sporting and recreation activity, and is also used for non-sporting events of both small and large scale. For business events the relevant characteristic is flat, column-free floor area with fixed spectator seating already in place. That makes it suited to trade shows and expos, large-format exhibitions, community and cultural events, examinations, graduations, prizegivings and conferences that need a big open floor rather than a tiered auditorium.

As a sports centre it is a bare-bones space by design: catering, staging, seating layouts, dressing and AV would generally be brought in for a business event, and organisers should confirm what is available through Bay Venues at the time of booking. There is no accommodation on site, but the Devonport Road location is close to the CBD and its hotels.

Setting

Memorial Park itself is a long-standing Tauranga civic space; its memorial pool opened in 1955, the memorial hall in 1957 and the illuminated fountain in 1962, and Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh visited the park in 1963. The park today includes pools, playgrounds, a miniature railway and mini golf, which gives the centre a useful setting for family-facing or community events.

Suitability

QEYC suits organisers needing volume and floor space at a central Tauranga address — expos, large gatherings, sports events and tournaments — rather than boardroom meetings or seated conference plenaries.