Rugby League Park

Sports stadium in Christchurch, New Zealand

For the former stadium in Christchurch that was known as AMI Stadium, see Lancaster Park.

For rugby league fields in general, see Rugby league playing field.

Rugby League Park

Aerial view of Rugby League Park in July 2012

Former names| Addington Showgrounds
AMI Stadium (sponsored)
Orangetheory Stadium (sponsored)
Location| 95 Jack Hinton Drive, Addington, Christchurch, New Zealand
Coordinates| 43°32′37″S 172°36′15″E﻿ / ﻿43.5437°S 172.6041°E﻿ / -43.5437; 172.6041
Owner| Canterbury Rugby League
Capacity| 17,104 (Sport mode)
Construction
Expanded| 24 March 2012
Architect| Populous
Tenants
Canterbury Bulls, South Island, Crusaders[1]

Rugby League Park is a sports stadium in Christchurch, New Zealand. It is currently known for sponsorship reasons as Apollo Projects Stadium, and non-commercially as Christchurch Stadium.[2][3]

The stadium was originally known as the Addington Showgrounds until 1997.[4] Due to sponsorships since 2012 it was also named AMI Stadium[5] and Orangetheory Stadium.

Rugby League Park is part of a complex with Wolfbrook Arena and Addington Raceway in the suburb of Addington.

## History

[edit]

### 20th century

[edit]

The park has hosted international rugby league matches since the 1950s, including World Cup matches in 1975, 1977, 1988, 1990 and 1991.

The ground was bought by Canterbury Rugby League from the Christchurch City Council in the 1990s.

It was at this ground that the Kiwis won the 1988 Great Britain Lions tour's sole test in New Zealand to qualify for the 1985–1988 Rugby League World Cup final.

### 21st century

[edit]

Rugby League Park sustained significant damage during the February 2011 Christchurch earthquake and was closed until 24 March 2012.[6] After the earthquake, the stands had to be demolished.

The 2011 earthquake also damaged AMI Stadium at Lancaster Park, 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 are based there indefinitely, and the stadium has also hosted All Blacks test matches as well as a Wellington Phoenix pre-season match in September 2012.[1][7][8] On 9 November 2013 it held a round 5 A-League match between Wellington Phoenix and Perth Glory in which the teams drew 1–1. On 14 May 2016, the ground played host to an NRL match between the Penrith Panthers and the New Zealand Warriors with the former being the home team.[9] Another NRL game took place on 9 June 2018 with the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles replacing Penrith as the home team against the Warriors.[10] 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 reaching the milestone of playing 200 Super Rugby matches.

From June 2019, the stadium was known as Orangetheory Stadium.[11] In August 2023 it was renamed Apollo Projects Stadium, sponsored by a design and construction company.[12]

In 2023, the New Zealand Warriors announced a three-year deal to play one home game a year in Christchurch from the 2024 NRL season onwards with Rugby League Park hosting the matches in 2024 and 2025 before Te Kaha opens its doors in 2026.[13] The Warriors defeated the Canberra Raiders 18–10 in the first of the fixtures on 22 March 2024.

In 2024, the Wellington Phoenix also announced a three-year deal to play one home game a year in Christchurch from the 2024-25 A-League Men's season onwards with Rugby League Park hosting the match in the 2024-25 season before Te Kaha opens its doors in 2026 for the matches in 2025-26 and 2026-27 seasons.[14] The Phoenix drew to Central Coast Mariners 0–0 in the first match on 25 January 2025, with an attendance of 14,064.[15]

## International rugby league matches

[edit]

A list of rugby league test matches played at the Addington Showgrounds / Rugby League Park.[16] The old Addington Showgrounds main arena was last used for test football in 1991. The first international rugby league use of the current Rugby League Park stadium was at the 2017 World Cup.

Test# | Date | Result | Attendance | Notes

|
|
|
|

1 | 29 July 1950 |  New Zealand def.  Great Britain 16–10 | 10,000 | 1950 New Zealand vs Great Britain series
2 | 27 June 1953 |  New Zealand def.  Australia 25–5 | 5,509 | 1953 Trans-Tasman Test series
3 | 1 August 1964 |  New Zealand def.  France 18–8 | 4,935 | 1964 New Zealand vs France series
4 | 19 July 1970 |  Great Britain def.  New Zealand 23–9 | 8,600 | 1970 New Zealand vs Great Britain series
5 | 4 August 1974 |  Great Britain def.  New Zealand 17–8 | 6,316 | 1974 New Zealand vs Great Britain series
6 | 15 June 1975 |  New Zealand def.  France 27–0 | 2,500 | 1975 Rugby League World Cup
7 | 12 June 1977 |  Great Britain def.  New Zealand 30–12 | 7,000 | 1977 Rugby League World Cup
8 | 5 August 1979 |  Great Britain def.  New Zealand 22–7 | 8,500 | 1979 New Zealand vs Great Britain series
9 | 22 July 1984 |  New Zealand def.  Great Britain 28–12 | 9,824 | 1984 New Zealand vs Great Britain series
10 | 17 July 1988 |  New Zealand def.  Great Britain 12–10 | 8,525 | 1988 Great Britain Lions tour
11 | 23 June 1991 |  New Zealand def.  France 32–10 | 2,000 | 1991 New Zealand vs France series
12 | 4 November 2017 |  New Zealand def.  Scotland 74–6 | 12,130 | 2017 Rugby League World Cup Group B
13 | 18 November 2017 |  Tonga def.  Lebanon 24–22 | 8,309 | 2017 Rugby League World Cup Quarter finals
14 | 9 November 2019 |  Fiji def.  Papua New Guinea 22–20 | 8,875 | 2019 Oceania Cup Group B Game 3
15 |  New Zealand def.  Great Britain 23–8 | 2019 Baskerville Shield 2nd Test
16 | 27 October 2024 |  Australia def.  New Zealand 14–0 | 10,289 | 2024 Pacific Championships Women's Cup Game 2
17 |  Australia def.  New Zealand 22–10 | 17,005 | 2024 Pacific Championships Men's Cup Game 2

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b Gorman, Paul (8 September 2011). "League park Crusaders' new home". The Press. Archived from the original on 11 September 2012. Retrieved 6 November 2011.
2. ^ "Christchurch to host the Kiwis in 2017 Rugby League World Cup". Canterbury Rugby League. 19 July 2016.
3. ^ "Apollo Projects Stadium (NZ) (Christchurch Stadium)". Austadiums.
4. ^ "History - Canterbury Rugby League Milestones Timeline". Canterbury Rugby League.
5. ^ "Crusaders veteran Wyatt Crockett earns stadium name change". Stuff. 4 July 2018.
6. ^ Kickoff delayed but winter codes expect to play Archived 24 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine The Star, 4 March 2011
7. ^ New rugby stadium for Christchurch New Zealand Herald, 8 November 2011
8. ^ Phoenix to play pre-season tournament in India stuff.co.nz, 7 August 2012
9. ^ "NRL: Panthers v Warriors | Austadiums". www.austadiums.com. Retrieved 10 June 2018.
10. ^ "NRL: Sea Eagles v Warriors | Austadiums". austadiums.com. Retrieved 10 June 2018.
11. ^ "Christchurch Stadium soon to be known as Orangetheory Stadium". Stuff. 5 April 2019. Retrieved 21 June 2019.
12. ^ "New naming partnership for stadium". Newsline. 28 June 2023. Retrieved 28 June 2023.
13. ^ "Warriors' three-year deal to take home games to Christchurch". warriors.kiwi. Retrieved 11 November 2023.
14. ^ "Nix agree to multi-year deal with Venues Ōtautahi". Wellington Phoenix. 24 September 2024. Retrieved 25 January 2025.
15. ^ "Two penalty awards spurned in scoreless draw for Wellington Phoenix". Wellington Phoenix. 25 January 2025. Retrieved 25 January 2025.
16. ^ Rugby League Park @ Rugby League Project

## External links

[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Addington Rugby Stadium.

* Orangetheory Stadium page at Vbase
* Christchurch Stadium broken med.govt.nz
* Rugby League Park rleague.com
* Rugby League Park rugbyleagueproject.org

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