Orangetheory Stadium is a rugby football stadium in

Christchurch Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon River / ...

, New Zealand. It was formerly called AMI Stadium, and before that, the Addington Showgrounds.

History

The park is part of a complex with

Christchurch Arena Christchurch Arena is an indoor arena in Christchurch, New Zealand. It is located in the suburb of Addington. It has gone through a series of name changes, the most recent of which prior to its current name having been Horncastle Arena. D ...

and

Addington Raceway Addington may refer to: Places In Australia: * Addington, Victoria In Canada: * Addington, Ontario * Addington County, Ontario (now Lennox and Addington County, Ontario) * Addington Highlands, Ontario * Addington Parish, New Brunswick * Ad ...

and has hosted international rugby league matches since the 1950s, including

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

matches in

1975 It was also declared the ''International Women's Year'' by the United Nations and the European Architectural Heritage Year by the Council of Europe. Events January * January 1 - Watergate scandal (United States): John N. Mitchell, H. R. ...

1977 Events January * January 8 – Three bombs explode in Moscow within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group. * January 10 – Mount Nyiragongo erupts in eastern Zaire (now the Democratic R ...

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Australian ...

, 1990 and 1991. The ground was bought by

Canterbury Rugby League Canterbury Rugby League is the regional body that administers rugby league in Canterbury, New Zealand. CRL manages local competitions from senior level down to age group competitions. Canterbury Rugby League also manages the Canterbury rugby lea ...

from the

Christchurch City Council The Christchurch City Council is the local government authority for Christchurch in New Zealand. It is a territorial authority elected to represent the people of Christchurch. Since October 2022, the Mayor of Christchurch is Phil Mauger, who ...

in the 1990s. It was at this ground that the Kiwis won the

1988 Great Britain Lions tour The 1988 Great Britain Lions tour was the Great Britain national rugby league team's 18th tour of Australasia and took place from May to July 1988. It started with a Test match against Papua New Guinea before the best-of-three series against Austr ...

's sole test in New Zealand to qualify for the

1985–1988 Rugby League World Cup The 1985–1988 Rugby League World Cup (sometimes shortened to 1988 Rugby League World Cup) was the ninth Rugby League World Cup tournament held and saw yet another change of format with competition stretched to cover almost three years (1985 t ...

final.

Orangetheory Stadium

Rugby League Park sustained significant damage during the February

2011 Christchurch earthquake A major earthquake occurred in Christchurch on Tuesday 22 February 2011 at 12:51 p.m. local time (23:51 UTC, 21 February). The () earthquake struck the entire of the Canterbury region in the South Island, centred south-east ...

and was closed until 24 March 2012. After the earthquake the stands had to be demolished. The 2011 earthquake damaged AMI Stadium at

Lancaster Park Lancaster Park, also known as Jade Stadium and AMI Stadium for sponsorship reasons, was a sports stadium in Waltham, a suburb of Christchurch in New Zealand. The stadium was closed permanently due to damage sustained in the February 2011 eart ...

, the main sporting ground in Christchurch, beyond repair. As a temporary replacement for the city, Rugby League Park was upgraded and renamed AMI Stadium to seat 18,000 by March 2012 with a possible expansion to 26,000 for major games. As a result, the

Crusaders The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these Crusades are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were in ...

are based there indefinitely, and the stadium has also hosted

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 ...

test matches as well as a

Wellington Phoenix Wellington Phoenix Football Club is a professional association football club based in Wellington, New Zealand. It competes in the Australian A-League, under licence from Football Federation Australia. Phoenix entered the competition in the ...

pre-season match in September 2012. On 9 November 2013 it held a round 5 A-League match between Wellington Phoenix and

Perth Glory Perth Glory Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Perth, Western Australia. It competes in the country's premier men's competition, A-League Men, under licence from Australian Professional Leagues. Founded in 19 ...

in which the teams drew 1-1. On 14 May 2016, the ground played host to an

NRL The National Rugby League (NRL) is an Australasian rugby league club competition which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory and New Zealand. The NRL formed in 1998 as a joint partnership ...

match between the

Penrith Panthers The Penrith Panthers are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the western Sydney suburb of Penrith that competes in the NRL. The team is based west of the centre of Sydney, at the foot of the Blue Mountains. Penrith ...

and the

New Zealand Warriors The New Zealand Warriors are a professional rugby league football club based in Auckland, New Zealand that competes in the National Rugby League (NRL) premiership and is the League's only team from outside Australia. They were formed in 1995 as ...

with the former being the home team. Another NRL game took place on 9 June 2018 with the

Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles The Manly Warringah Sea Eagles are an Australian professional rugby league club based in Sydney's Northern Beaches. The team colours are maroon and white, while their namesake and logo is the sea eagle. They compete in Australia's premier rugb ...

replacing Penrith as the home team against the Warriors. The Sea Eagles played another game at the stadium in 2019 but decided to not play in Christchurch in the 2020 season. On 6 July 2018, the stadium was officially renamed to the Wyatt Crockett Stadium, becoming de-branded from AMI Stadium. This was to commemorate the Crusaders player

Wyatt Crockett Wyatt William Vogels Crockett (born 24 January 1983) is a former New Zealand rugby union player. He played at prop for the Crusaders in Super Rugby, Canterbury and Tasman in the National Provincial Championship, and the New Zealand national team ...

reaching the milestone of playing 200 Super Rugby matches. On 6 April 2019, it was announced that the stadium would soon be known as Orangetheory Stadium. The new name went into effect in June 2019.

International rugby league matches

A list of rugby league test matches played at the Addington Showgrounds / Rugby League Park.

References

External links

Orangetheory Stadium page at VbaseChristchurch Stadium
broken ''med.govt.nz''
Rugby League Park
''rleague.com''

''rugbyleagueproject.org'' {{2017 RLWC venues Sports venues in Christchurch Rugby league stadiums in New Zealand Rugby League World Cup stadiums Rugby union stadiums in New Zealand Association football venues in New Zealand 2011 Christchurch earthquake