North Harbour Stadium is a

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 ...

situated in Albany, in North Shore City,

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 coun ...

. It was opened in 1997, after nearly a decade of discussion, planning and construction.

Rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...

, and

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...

are all played on the main ground. The neighbouring oval plays host to the senior

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by st ...

and

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

matches. The stadium also hosts large open-air concerts.

History

It is the home ground for the North Harbour side in the Mitre 10 Cup, taking over from North Harbour's previous home venue, Onewa Domain in Takapuna. It typically hosts one

Auckland Blues The Blues (known as the Auckland Blues from 1996 to 2000) is a New Zealand professional rugby union team based in Auckland, who play in the Super Rugby competition. Like New Zealand's four other Super Rugby teams, the Blues were established by ...

home game in

Super Rugby Super Rugby is a men's professional rugby union club competition involving teams from Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands. It previously included teams from Argentina, Japan, and South Africa. Building on various Southern Hem ...

annually. It has played host to several rugby union and rugby league internationals. 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 ...

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 ...

team often play warm-up matches at the ground. It was the home ground for The

New Zealand Knights New Zealand Knights Football Club (formed from the Football Kingz Football Club in 2004) were the only professional association football club in New Zealand before they became defunct. Based in Auckland, New Zealand, they played in the A-Leagu ...

, the one New Zealand soccer team in the otherwise all-Australian Hyundai A-League, from 2005 until their licence was revoked by the league at the completion of the 2006/2007 season. It played host to the FIFA Under-17 Women's Football World Cup in 2008. Radio Control Car Racing is occasionally held in a racetrack next to one of the carparks. On 20 June 2015 the stadium hosted the final of the

FIFA Under-20 World Cup The FIFA U-20 World Cup is the biennial football world championship tournament for FIFA members’ men's national teams with players under the age of 20. The competition has been staged every two years since the inaugural tournament in 1977 wh ...

. The

Auckland Tuatara The Auckland Tuatara is a professional baseball team in the Australian Baseball League based in Auckland, New Zealand. They are the only team from New Zealand to compete in the ABL, and one of two expansion teams that entered the league in the ...

of the Australian Baseball League use the Stadium as their Home Ground, The Residence began in 2019, after making renovations to make the stadium to make it suitable for baseball. Between January 2014 and January 2019, the stadium was sponsored by QBE Insurance and called QBE Stadium.

Layout

It has an official capacity of 22,000 for sporting events. The stadium has four seating areas – the main grandstand, on the southern side, which seats 12,000 and contains corporate facilities; an uncovered stand opposite which seats 7,000; and grass embankments at either end which each seat 3,000. A media tower was built prior to the

2011 Rugby World Cup The 2011 Rugby World Cup was the seventh Rugby World Cup, a quadrennial international rugby union competition inaugurated in 1987. The International Rugby Board (IRB) selected New Zealand as the host country in preference to Japan and South ...

looking down on the uncovered seats and across to the grandstand. The stadium is lit by four 45-metre tall light towers.

Rugby World Cup 2011

New Zealand won the

Rugby World Cup 2011 The 2011 Rugby World Cup was the seventh Rugby World Cup, a quadrennial international rugby union competition inaugurated in 1987. The International Rugby Board (IRB) selected New Zealand as the host country in preference to Japan and South Af ...

hosting rights in 2005, prompting a debate in late-2006 as to which stadium should be used to host the final.

Eden Park Eden Park is New Zealand's largest sports stadium, with a capacity of 50,000. Located in central Auckland, New Zealand's largest city, it is three kilometres southwest of the Auckland CBD, CBD, on the boundary between the suburbs of Mount E ...

and Stadium New Zealand were considered to be the two main options with North Harbour as an outsider. Eventually, the New Zealand government decided that

would host the final, with North Harbour as the official reserve option. The stadium's media facilities were updated for matches that were hosted at the venue. A large broadcast town was developed on the western side of the ground. It comprises three levels for venue operations and ground announcer on the first floor, television and radio commentators and television match official on the second with an retraceable window on the third floor for cameras.

References

https://archello.com/project/north-harbour-stadium-broadcast-tower

External links

Official North Harbour Stadium Site
* {{NZL fb stadia 1990s architecture in New Zealand A-League Men stadiums Association football venues in New Zealand Auckland cricket grounds Auckland Tuatara Baseball venues in New Zealand New Zealand Knights FC North Shore, New Zealand 1997 establishments in New Zealand Rugby league stadiums in New Zealand Rugby union stadiums in New Zealand Sports venues completed in 1997