Bill McKinlay Park, (formerly Ireland Road Domain) is a multi-purpose

stadium A stadium ( : stadiums or stadia) is a place or venue for (mostly) outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage either partly or completely surrounded by a tiered structure designed to allow spectators to stand o ...

in the suburb of Mount Wellington in

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. It is used for

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

matches and is the home stadium of

NRF League One The NRF League One is a New Zealand amateur football league. The league is run by Northern Region Football, an amalgamation of the Auckland Football Federation and Northern Football Federation, and includes football clubs located in Northland a ...

side Uni-Mount Bohemian.

Eastern Suburbs Eastern Suburbs may refer to: Places *Eastern Suburbs (Mumbai), India *Eastern Suburbs (Sydney), Australia **Eastern Suburbs railway line, Sydney, Australia Sports clubs ;Association football *Eastern Suburbs AFC, Auckland, New Zealand * Eastern ...

also used Bill McKinlay Park for their

New Zealand Football Championship The New Zealand Football Championship ( mi, Te Whakataetae Whutupaoro a Aotearoa) was a men's association football league at the top of the New Zealand league system. Founded in 2004, the New Zealand Football Championship was the successor to a m ...

games between 2016 and 2018. Bill McKinlay has hosted seven international friendlies and the

1983 Chatham Cup The 1983 Chatham Cup was the 56th annual nationwide knockout football competition in New Zealand. Early stages of the competition were run in three regions (northern, central, and southern), with the National League teams receiving a bye until ...

Final Replay.

History

In 1902, Bill McKinlay Park was opened under the control of the Mt Wellington Domain Board. Ireland Road Domain used to host sports days, rodeos and carnivals on their grounds. In 1954 the board made the decision to give exclusive access of the ground to Mount Wellington AFC, meaning Mt Wellington RFC no longer had use of the ground. Between 1961 and 1968, changing rooms, an upstairs lounge and the clubrooms were completed. In 1976, Bill and Joe McKinlay passed away suddenly. Mount Wellington AFC asked the Mt Wellington Borough Council to change the name of the ground to its current name, Bill McKinlay Park, in Bill's honour. In 2006, Mt Wellington Stadium Charitable Trust was formed to assess the option of developing Bill McKinlay Park into a multi-use, all-weather stadium. In 2010, a

NZD The New Zealand dollar ( mi, tāra o Aotearoa; currency sign, sign: $, NZ$; ISO 4217, code: NZD) is the official currency and legal tender of New Zealand, the Cook Islands, Niue, the Ross Dependency, Tokelau, and a British territory, the Pitcair ...

$500,000 facility partnership grant was approved, allowing the Mt Wellington Stadium Charitable Trust to construct an artificial turf. The turf was completed in 2011, installed by Tiger Turf and tested to a

FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

2* standard.

International matches

Bill McKinlay Park has hosted several international matches, including a Tri-Nations Series between

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and

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu River, Y ...

. This series was part of the build up to the

2015 FIFA Women's World Cup The 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup was the seventh FIFA Women's World Cup, the quadrennial international soccer championship contested by the women's national teams of the member associations of FIFA. The tournament was hosted by Canada for the ...

held in

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. In 1982, Bill McKinlay Park also hosted a cross code series of rugby and football where the

All Blacks The New Zealand national rugby union team, commonly known as the All Blacks ( mi, Ōpango), represents New Zealand in men's international rugby union, which is considered the country's national sport. The team won the Rugby World Cup in 1987 ...

played the

All Whites The New Zealand men's national football team ( mi, Tīma hoka a-motu o Aotearoa) represents New Zealand in men's international football competitions. The team is governed by the governing body for football in New Zealand, New Zealand Footbal ...

References

{{NZL fb stadia 1902 establishments in New Zealand Association football venues in New Zealand Sports venues in Auckland Sports venues completed in 1902