More than 13,000 out of town fans to attend Super Rugby Pacific’s Super Round at new Christchurch stadium
Saturday, 21 March 2026
Fresh off an All Blacks sell out, Christchurch’s glitzy new indoor stadium is tracking the same way for its first sports event.
Super Rugby Pacific’s Super Round will launch the $683 million multi-use central city venue with five games over three days from April 24-26.
The opening Super Round fixture between the Crusaders and Waratahs on the Friday night sold out six months in advance and about 5000 general admission tickets remained for the Saturday and Sunday games at the 25,000-seat facility.
Saturday’s games will see the Hurricanes take on the Brumbies and the Blues face the Reds. On Sunday, the Highlanders meet Moana Pasifika and the Chiefs tackle the Fijian Drua.
Super Rugby Pacific chief executive Jack Mesley revealed 13,500 fans from across New Zealand and overseas were expected to travel to Christchurch for the Super Round.
“I think it’s incredibly exciting for the competition. We know fans love to travel. Touring is part of rugby. To be able to get fans from across all of our teams down into a great city and a part of the world that means so much to Super Rugby, being the home of the Crusaders, the competition’s most successful side, is excellent,” Mesley said.
“I know a lot of people haven’t been back to Christchurch for a long time.”
A Super Round was played in Melbourne between 2022 and 2024 before the Rebels withdrew from the competition because of financial issues. The Melbourne Super Round drew disappointing crowds with a total of 32,000 fans attending the six games in 2024 when it was last staged.
In contrast, the NRL’s ‘Magic Round’ has been held at one venue, Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium, since first being introduced in 2019. Last year, 149,326 attended the rugby league showcase over the three days with an average daily attendance of 49,775.
Given the surge in ticket sales, Mesley was open to the possibility of bringing Super Round back to One New Zealand Stadium and making it a permanent fixture. Super Rugby Pacific were keeping an open mind and Mesley said they would consider other locations too.
“It’s clearly signalling it does work in Christchurch, so that would certainly be part of the conversation, but we’d also look to other interested parties.
“It’s an incredibly expensive exercise to put on in flying 10 teams all into a central location and putting on a big show for three days. The economics of it have to stack up, that’s for sure.”
The cheapest remaining general admission adult tickets for the Saturday and Sunday Super Round games were $61.20 (children $25.50), excluding booking fees. A Saturday-Sunday two-day adult pass costs $122.40 with children $51.
More details about the fan experience for Super Round would be detailed in the coming weeks with Mesley promising several exciting initiatives.
He had been heartened by how quickly rugby fans had snapped up tickets with the opportunity to witness the first games at the state-of-the-art facility clearly a factor.
“I looked at some photos of the Crusaders doing a site visit [on Wednesday] and they were on the grass. The deck looks amazing.
“I think the fact it’s absolutely purpose built for rugby is excellent. You’re so close to the sideline and every seat in the house is going to be right on top of the action.”
New Zealand Rugby announced on Wednesday the All Blacks’ first test at the new Christchurch stadium on July 4 against France had sold out in four hours. NZR said a limited number of hospitality packages remained available, and a small allocation of tickets may be released closer to the match.
The Warriors’ first NRL game at the Christchurch venue against the North Queensland Cowboys on June 21 also sold out in five days.