| Westpac Stadium Wellington Regional Stadium |
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|---|---|
| 'The Stadium' 'The Cake Tin' | |
| Former names | WestpacTrust Stadium |
| Location | Wellington, New Zealand |
| Broke ground | 12 March 1998 |
| Opened | 3 January 2000 |
| Owner | Wellington Regional Stadium Trust |
| Operator | Wellington Regional Stadium Trust |
| Surface | Grass |
| Construction cost | $130 million NZD |
| Architect | Architecture Warren & Mahoney Ltd Populous (then Bligh Lobb Sports Architecture) |
| Project Manager | Beca Carter Hollings & Ferner Ltd |
| Main contractors | Fletcher Construction Ltd |
| Capacity | 36,000[1] |
| Field dimensions | Length (North to South) 235 metres Width (West to East) 185 metres |
| Website | http://www.westpacstadium.co.nz/ |
| Tenants | |
| Hurricanes (Super Rugby) (2000–present) Wellington Lions (ITM Cup) Wellington Firebirds (NZC) Wellington Phoenix (A-League) (2008–present) University of Otago [2] |
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Westpac Stadium, (formerly WestpacTrust Stadium, noncommercial name Wellington Regional Stadium) is a major sporting venue in Wellington, New Zealand. Due to its shape and silver coloured external walls, it is colloquially known as The Cake-Tin to the locals and other New Zealanders. Fans of football (soccer) team Wellington Phoenix sometimes refer to the stadium as The Ring of Fire.
The stadium's bowl site size is 48,000 sq m.
The stadium was built in 1999 by Fletcher Construction[3] and is situated close to major transport facilities (such as Wellington Railway Station) one kilometre north of the CBD. It was built on reclaimed railway land, which was surplus to requirements.
It was built to replace Athletic Park, which was no longer considered adequate for international events due to its location and state of disrepair. The stadium was also built to provide a larger-capacity venue for One Day International cricket events, due to the Basin Reserve ground losing such matches to larger stadia in other parts of the country.
The stadium also serves as a large-capacity venue for concerts.
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The stadium is a multi-purpose facility, though used mainly for sporting events. It is the home of the Wellington Lions ITM Cup rugby team, and the primary home of the Super Rugby Hurricanes. The stadium also hosts the NZI International Sevens, one of the events in the annual IRB Sevens World Series for national rugby sevens teams. Westpac Stadium regularly serves as a home venue for All Blacks rugby matches.
Westpac Stadium is also the home venue for A-League football (soccer) team Wellington Phoenix FC, the stadium often referred to as "The Ring of Fire" by Phoenix supporters. It also serves as a major home venue for the New Zealand national football team (the All Whites), notably hosting the home leg of their 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification match against Bahrain.
The stadium has also been used for rugby league matches, including national team fixtures and New Zealand Warriors away fixtures. Australian rules football exhibition matches were played in 2000 and 2001 by teams from the Australian Football League.
During the summer the stadium generally hosts international and occasionally domestic limited overs cricket, with the home team being the New Zealand Black Caps for the international contests and Wellington Firebirds for the domestic competition.
Off-field facilities built into the stadium also included the New Zealand Institute of Sport, and a campus for the Wellington School of Cricket, run by the Wellington Cricket Association.
In 2000, The Westpac Stadium hosted the Edinburgh Military Tattoo. This was the first time the event was hosted outside of Edinburgh, Scotland.
In 2002 during an England versus Black Cap cricket match, director Peter Jackson recorded 30,000 fans chanting in Black Speech for the sound of 10,000 chanting Uruk-hai during the Battle of Helm's Deep in the film The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.
2006 events at the stadium have included a concert by The Rolling Stones which ended the Australasian leg of its A Bigger Bang World Tour, and World Wrestling Entertainment's first ever New Zealand show, part of the WWE Smackdown! Road to Wrestlemania Tour (4 March).
On 14 October 2007, Australia defeated New Zealand in the Centenary Test rugby league game. The 58–0 defeat set a new record for the largest loss by the New Zealand national rugby league team.
On 1 December 2007, the stadium hosted an exhibition match between Wellington Phoenix FC and Los Angeles Galaxy. LA Galaxy won 4–1 in front of 31,853 spectators, the largest crowd for non-national football (soccer) match in New Zealand history.[4]
On 17 January 2008 the stadium hosted the first leg of The Police Reunion Tour [5] and over Easter the inaugural two day "Rock2Wgtn" music festival, headlined by Kiss and Ozzy Osbourne. Attendance over the two days was around 50,000.[6]
New Zealand hosted the 2008 FIFA Under-17 Women's World Cup. Six pool matches and two playoff matches were played at the Westpac Stadium. Due to FIFA rules disallowing host stadia to be named after non-FIFA sponsors, the stadium was officially known as "Wellington Stadium" during the event.
The stadium hosted the national team's 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifying match on 14 November 2009 against Bahrain. New Zealand won the match 1–0, with a record crowd of 35,194 for a football match in New Zealand.
On 28 January 2010 AC/DC kicked off the Australasian leg of its Black Ice World Tour at the stadium. The concert quickly sold out so a second was scheduled for 30 January.[7] The stadium was also a venue for Bon Jovi's The Circle Tour in 2010.
The stadium hosted eight games during the 2011 Rugby World Cup including two quarterfinal matches.
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