Interest booms in new Christchurch stadium where first game was sold out six months in advance
Friday, 2 January 2026
Crusaders chief executive Colin Mansbridge had already cheekily dubbed Christchurch’s One New Zealand Te Kaha citadel as “the national stadium’’, but he seems even more convinced it is set to be a game-changer for Aotearoa sport.
The $683 million roofed, rectangular, 30,000-seat stadium will open with a Super Rugby Pacific ‘Super Round’ at Anzac weekend next April.
Mansbridge - who made the national stadium quip in August during a stadium tour - predicts that it will serve as the sporting equivalent of “the Black Friday Sale”, a taster to get people excited about the nation’s newest sporting venue.
“Interest in coming there will increase once people see it on TV,’’ he said. “Once they see Super Round, they’ll go ‘wow, that looks really special, we would like a piece of that’”.
The pulling power of a brand new venue, which has the feel of a European football stadium, is already evident.
When Melbourne hosted Super Round for three years from 2022 to 2024 weekend ticket sales averaged in the 35,000 to 40,000 range.
By mid-December sales for the 2026 mini-tournament featuring 10 of the 11 Super Rugby sides were already close to 50,000, Mansbridge said.
“We’ve sold out the Friday [when the Crusaders play the Waratahs] - we’ve never sold out a match six months in advance. The Saturday and Sunday aren’t sold out yet, but they’d be great crowds in any other week.”
Christchurch has a one-year contract to host Super Round, but Super Rugby Pacific chief executive Jack Mesley has told The Press that could be extended if the 2026 proves successful.
The Crusaders traditionally sell “just north of 4000 memberships’’ to diehard ticket holders. Mansbridge expects the figure to be close to 5000 in 2026 because of the new stadium effect.
Add that figure to the 3500 “behind glass’’ in the corporate areas, and the Crusaders “already go in with a really good crowd allocated before we even start selling [general] tickets”.
The early interest in events at Te Kaha underline it will be the most eagerly-awaited and visited venue in Christchurch since the opening of the Town Hall in 1972.
So clearly the Kevin Costner mantra from the Field of Dreams movie does hold true. “If you build it, they will come”.
Sports are certainly queuing up.
The Crusaders will start their season at the old Apollo Projects Stadium in Addington, but will play their final four home games, and any home playoff fixtures, at the new venue.
The Warriors - regular recent visitors to Christchurch - will stage a NRL game against the Cowboys at Te Kaha in June and the All Blacks will host France there in July.
The Wellington Phoenix will play there in the 2026-27 A-League season as part of a three-year deal with Venues Ōtautahi, the Christchurch City Council-owned stadium operator.
Expect New Zealand Football to take All Whites and Football Ferns games there at the back end of 2026.
The International Rugby League Federation has booked two 2026 Rugby League World Cup matches there next October with the Kiwis men playing the Cook Islands and the Kiwi Ferns women meeting France.
That is quite a coup because the World Cup is largely being held in Australia. The IRL’s call speaks volumes for the sport’s interest in Te Kaha’s potential.
Australian NRL clubs are likely to investigate taking a “home’’ game against the Warriors to Christchurch where, given the support for the Warriors in the South Island, a sell-out crowd is a strong prospect.
Seasoned international sporting administrator David Moffett has hailed Te Kaha as “the best stadium for watching football [of any code] in New Zealand’’ and claimed it would produce an atmosphere equal to or better than Brisbane’s 50,000-seat Suncorp Stadium.
So why is the Christchurch stadium inspiring so much interest?
Its rectangular shape makes it ideal for rugby union, rugby league and football compared with oval-shaped dual purpose rugby and cricket grounds like Auckland’s Eden Park and Wellington’s Sky Stadium.
But Dunedin (Forsyth Barr Stadium) and Hamilton (Waikato Stadium) also have rectangular grounds - and Dunedin’s also has a roof.
What sets Te Kaha apart is its locale.
Former Kiwis coach Sir Graham Lowe, in touting it as a potential State of Origin venue, told The Press last August: “I’m a one-eyed Aucklander, but Eden Park can’t match what the new stadium in Christchurch can deliver. That’s absolutely world-class, and with all the bars and restaurants around it, nothing can compete with it.”
Mansbridge estimates Te Kaha will be a 400m walk from Christchurch’s revitalised heart.
“No disrespect to Lancaster Park, but you couldn’t see it from the central city, and it was a long hike.”
By contrast, Te Kaha, which looms over the CBD like the Colosseum in Rome, “feels like it’s right in the city”.
“When Sky Stadium first opened we thought, ‘wow, that’s in close proximity to town’, but it’s still windswept and a bit of a hike.
“This feels like you could almost walk under cover to get there.”
Mansbridge doubts there are many other venues around the world so close to the after-match action.
The nearest rugby equivalent is Wales’ Principality Stadium, a nine-minute walk from Cardiff’s St David’s shopping precinct.
Even Soldier Field - one of America’s closest inner-city venues, where the All Blacks played Ireland in November - is a little further away from Chicago’s epicentre than Te Kaha is to Christchurch’s.
But Te Kaha is not all about rugby - or sport, for that matter. It is slated to become a major concert venue and designed to host trade shows.
It will, however, provide creature comforts hitherto not experienced by sports practitioners and supporters in Aotearoa.
The arena has four changing suites, medical and physio rooms, a hydrotherapy plunge pool and large indoor warm-up areas.
Mansbridge says Crusaders players are in awe of the opportunity at Te Kaha. He took halves Taha Kemara and Noah Holtham on a sneak preview and said All Blacks halfback Hotham, “who’s obviously seen some very special venues, was blown away by this one”.
Players and punters will no longer get rained on or chilled to the marrow by the beastly easterly which whistles through Apollo Projects’ wind tunnel.
The stadium roof is partly made form an extremely strong type of clear plastic known as ETFE (ethlyene tetrafluoroethylene), allowing natural light to shine through from the north to support turf growth while protecting visitors from the elements.
The roof will keep the temperature inside the stadium around two to four degrees warmer than outside.
Even the food will be better. “You’ll still be able to get pie and chips,” Mansbridge says, but the range of upmarket vendors means there will be “almost a Riverside [Markets] feel”.
Te Kaha’s advent means Christchurch will now attract more international sporting events that have skipped the city since the 2011 earthquake forced the move to the temporary stadium at Addington formerly known as Rugby League Park.
Christchurch has hosted just six tests since 2012 compared with 12 in the corresponding previous 14-season period between 1998 and 2011.
It will put Christchurch back in the frame for more tier one rugby tests - plum encounters with Rugby Championship rivals South Africa and Australia and sides like the British and Irish Lions.
The city hosted seven tests in the tier one category between 1998 and 2011, but just two Rugby Championship matches since. The Wallabies last played a Bledisloe Cup test in Christchurch in 2010 and the Springboks haven’t visited since 2016.
What does the new Christchurch stadium mean for Dunedin’s Forsyth Barr?
Dunedin has definitely benefited from being the only premier venue in the South Island for the last decade and a half.
Forsyth Barr Stadium has hosted 11 tests since 2012.
Major music concerts have gone there, including Pink, the Red Hot Chill Peppers, Rod Stewart, Six60 and Ed Sheeran.
Prized tier one rugby tests have also brought in much-needed cash and the Dunedin attracted 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup games after Christchurch was bypassed.
Venues Ōtautahi chief executive Caroline Harvie-Teare told The Press last January that Dunedin would “understandably be nervous” and that the state of the art Te Kaha facility would have better acoustics.
“We do want to have a good relationship [with Dunedin],” she said. “But we need to make hay while the sun shines.”
Even the Otago Daily Times issued an ominous note in a sports column last month entitled: “The reality of Christchurch stadium about to bite”.
Promoters have also predicted big musical acts will opt for Christchurch over Dunedin.
Canterbury - with an international airport and a population of close to 700,000 and a bigger accommodation sector than Dunedin - looks set to cash in.
Win-win?
Mansbridge admits the Crusaders will “probably get a lift through the venue’’ that other Super Rugby sides don’t have, but he hopes there could be a spinoff effect.
“I think we’ll do much better in attendances these next couple of years, and hopefully that inspires people to go back to other venues as well.”
Despite Mansbridge’s national stadium jibe jocularly aimed at Auckland, there are still 20,000 reasons why Eden Park - with its 50,000 seats - is still likely to draw a strong share of headline matches and acts.
But the early signs suggest that Te Kaha will live up to Mayor Phil Mauger’s bold boast in August and become “the sporting and events capital’’ and “the envy of the nation”.