Memorial Park is a venue 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 in

Lower Hutt Lower Hutt ( mi, Te Awa Kairangi ki Tai) is a city in the Wellington Region of New Zealand. Administered by the Hutt City Council, it is one of the four cities that constitute the Wellington metropolitan area. It is New Zealand's sixth most p ...

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 the home of

Petone FC Petone FC is an association football club in Petone, New Zealand. The club provides football for men, women and children. The club's men's first team competes in the Central League with the women's first team competing in the Capital Football W ...

who have been based there since 1961 as well as Capital Football who look after the game for the Wellington Region. The ground was also the training base and home ground for the National Women's team Capital Football who play in New Zealand's highest level domestic competition, the

National Women's League National Women's League may refer to: * National Women's League (Canada), a women's rugby union league in Canada * National Women's League (Ghana), a women's football league in Ghana * National Women's League (New Zealand), a women's football le ...

. It was the first ground in Wellington to have a fully floodlit training pitch which was established in 1979. In 2012, Capital Football,

New Zealand Football New Zealand Football is the governing body for the sport of association football in New Zealand. It oversees the seven New Zealand Football federations, as well as the New Zealand national football team (nicknamed the "All Whites"), the nationa ...

and

Hutt City Council The Hutt City Council is a territorial authority in New Zealand, governing the city of Lower Hutt. Lower Hutt is the country's seventh largest city. The city borders Porirua to the north, Upper Hutt to the northeast, South Wairarapa District to ...

announced that Memorial Park would get an artificial pitch with the aim of making the ground the 'Home of Football' for the Wellington Region. Work was started on Tuesday 23 October 2012 and was official opened on 25 May 2013 by Lower Hutt Mayor Ray Wallace, New Zealand Football chairman

Frank van Hattum Francesco van Hattum (born 17 November 1958 in New Plymouth) is a former New Zealand football player who was a goalkeeper during the country's first World Cup finals tournament in 1982. His international career started in 1980, and he played a ...

, Capital Football chief executive

Richard Reid Richard Colvin Reid (born 12 August 1973), also known as the "Shoe Bomber", is the perpetrator of the failed shoe bombing attempt on a transatlantic flight in 2001. Born to a father who was a career criminal, Reid converted to Islam as a young ...

and Petone Football club chairman Craig Deadman.

References

Association football venues in New Zealand Sports venues in Wellington {{NewZealand-sports-venue-stub