Wellington Regional Stadium

Wellington Regional Stadium
Westpac Stadium

'The Cake Tin' 'The Ring of Fire'
Former names	WestpacTrust Stadium
Location	Wellington, New Zealand
Coordinates	41°16′23″S 174°47′9″E / 41.27306°S 174.78583°E / -41.27306; 174.78583Coordinates: 41°16′23″S 174°47′9″E / 41.27306°S 174.78583°E / -41.27306; 174.78583
Owner	Wellington Regional Stadium Trust
Operator	Wellington Regional Stadium Trust
Capacity	34,500 (Seating capacity)[1] 33,000 (Cricket)[2]
Field size	Length (north–south) 235 metres Width (west–east) 185 metres (stadium dimensions, not the playing surface)
Surface	Grass
Construction
Broke ground	12 March 1998
Opened	3 January 2000
Construction cost	NZ$130 million
Architect	Warren and Mahoney Populous (then Bligh Lobb Sports Architecture)
Project manager	Beca Carter Hollings & Ferner Ltd
Main contractors	Fletcher Construction Ltd
Tenants
Hurricanes (Super Rugby) (2000–present) Wellington Lions (ITM Cup) (2000–present) Wellington Firebirds (NZC) (2000–present) Wellington Phoenix (A-League) (2008–present) St Kilda Football Club (AFL) (2013-15) New Zealand Institute of Sport
Website
http://www.westpacstadium.co.nz/
Ground information
End names
Scoreboard End City End
International information
First ODI	8–9 January 2000: New Zealand v West Indies
Last ODI	6 February 2016: New Zealand v Australia
First T20I	22 December 2006: New Zealand v Sri Lanka
Last T20I	22 January 2016: New Zealand v Pakistan
As of 6 February 2016 Source: ESPNcricinfo

Westpac Stadium and CentrePort Wellington, 2015

Wellington Regional Stadium (known as Westpac Stadium through naming rights) is a major sporting venue in Wellington, New Zealand. 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 matches, 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.

Tenants

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 Hurricanes Super Rugby team. The stadium also hosts the Wellington 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.

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.

The stadium has also been used for rugby league matches, including national team fixtures and New Zealand Warriors away fixtures. In recent years, the St. Kilda Australian Rules Football club has played other AFL clubs including Melbourne, Brisbane and Carlton at the stadium on Anzac Day.

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.

Events

In 2000, The Westpac Stadium hosted the Edinburgh Military Tattoo. This was the first time the event was hosted outside Edinburgh, Scotland.

In 2002 during an England versus Black Caps 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.

On 4 March 2006 WWE's first ever New Zealand show, WWE SmackDown Road to WrestleMania 22 Tour was held at the stadium. 23,875 people were in attendance to witness the televised event. There were 9 matches including a triple threat match between Kurt Angle, The Undertaker and Mark Henry for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.

Also in 2006 a concert was held by The Rolling Stones which ended the Australasian leg of its A Bigger Bang World Tour,

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 quarter-final matches.

On 11 May 2013 the stadium and Wellington hosted its first National Rugby League fixture since 2004 with the Auckland-based New Zealand Warriors hosting the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs at the stadium for 'The Capital Clash'.^[8] The Warriors wore their 'Capital Clash' jerseys which incorporated the black and gold colours of Wellington and a design based off a strip worn by Wellington Rugby League teams in the 1970s. The Warriors lost the game late in the match in front of 28,096 fans.^[9]

On 20 November 2013, the stadium hosted the second leg of the World Cup qualification inter-confederation play-off against Mexico, which resulted in New Zealand failing to qualify for the 2014 FIFA World Cup.^[10]

On 15 November 2014, the stadium hosted the 2014 Rugby League Four Nations Final. It was the first Four Nations Final held in New Zealand, though the Mount Smart Stadium in Auckland hosted the inaugural final of the tournament, then known as the Tri-Nations, in 1999.^[11]

The stadium was one of the venues for 2015 Cricket World Cup which was co-hosted by New Zealand and Australia. It hosted a total of four matches during the World Cup which included a quarter-final clash between the hosts New Zealand and West Indies.^[12]

Major Tournaments

2011 Rugby World Cup 

11 September 2011	South Africa	17–16	Wales	Regional Stadium, Wellington Attendance: 33,331
17 September 2011	South Africa	49–3	Fiji	Regional Stadium, Wellington Attendance: 33,262
23 September 2011	Australia	67–5	United States	Regional Stadium, Wellington Attendance: 33,824
25 September 2011	Argentina	13–12	Scotland	Regional Stadium, Wellington Attendance: 26,937
1 October 2011	France	14–19	Tonga	Regional Stadium, Wellington Attendance: 32,763
2 October 2011	New Zealand	79–15	Canada	Regional Stadium, Wellington Attendance: 37,665
8 October 2011	Ireland	10–22	Wales	Regional Stadium, Wellington Attendance: 35,787
9 October 2011	South Africa	9–11	Australia	Regional Stadium, Wellington Attendance: 34,914

Reference:^[13]

2015 Cricket World Cup 

20 February (D/N) Scorecard

England  123 (33.2 overs)

v

New Zealand 125/2 (12.2 overs)

New Zealand won by 8 wickets Wellington Regional Stadium, Wellington Attendance: 30,148

1 March Scorecard

England  309/6 (50 overs)

v

Sri Lanka 312/1 (47.2 overs)

Sri Lanka won by 9 wickets Wellington Regional Stadium, Wellington Attendance: 18,183

12 March (D/N) Scorecard

South Africa  341/6 (50 overs)

v

United Arab Emirates 195 (47.3 overs)

South Africa won by 146 runs Wellington Regional Stadium, Wellington Attendance: 4,901

21 March (D/N) Scorecard

New Zealand  393/6 (50 overs)

v

West Indies 250 (30.3 overs)

New Zealand won by 143 runs Wellington Regional Stadium, Wellington Attendance: 30,268

Reference:^[14]

Rugby League Test Matches

Since its opening in 2000, Wellington Regional Stadium has hosted six New Zealand rugby league internationals. The results were as follows;.^[15]

Date	Opponent	Result	Attendance	Part of
13 July 2001	Australia	10 – 28	26,580
12 October 2002		24 – 32	25,015
11 November 2006	Great Britain	34 – 4	16,401	2006 Tri-Nations
11 October 2007	Australia	0 – 58	16,681
23 October 2010	England	24–10	20,324	2010 Four Nations
12 November 2014	Australia	22–18	25,093	2014 Four Nations Final

Gallery

Panorama of Westpac Stadium

• 

  An ODI cricket match between New Zealand and West Indies in 2009 National Bank series

• 

  Crowd at a Tri-Nations rugby union match

• 

  Rock2Wgtn Easter weekend 2008

• 

  The stadium during the pool match between New Zealand and Canada at the 2011 Rugby World Cup

• 

  The stadium at night during an ODI match between New Zealand England

• 

  NZ Army Band performance at Westpac Stadium

• 

  The end of The Police concert on 17 January 2008

See also

• Basin Reserve – Wellington's other international cricket ground

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Wellington Regional Stadium.

• Official website
• Cricinfo Westpac Stadium page
• Wellington Regional Stadium at Austadiums