Waikato Stadium

Waikato Stadium
Data
place	Hamilton , New Zealand
Coordinates	37 ° 46 ′ 52 ″  S , 175 ° 16 ′ 7 ″  O Coordinates: 37 ° 46 ′ 52 ″  S , 175 ° 16 ′ 7 ″  O
opening	March 1, 2002
First game	Chiefs - Crusaders
capacity	26,350 seats
Societies)
Waikato Rugby Union (Rugby) Chiefs (rugby) Waikato FC (soccer)

The Waikato Stadium is a major football - and rugby union stadium in the New Zealand city of Hamilton . It has 26,350 seats and standing places, the capacity can be expanded to 30,000 spectators if necessary.

In the stadium, which is owned by the City of Hamilton, three teams have home rights:

• the Waikato Rugby Union in the national rugby championship Air New Zealand Cup
• the chiefs in the international rugby championship Super 14
• the Waikato FC in the Football Championship New Zealand Football Championship

In addition, international games for the All Blacks and home games for the Australian rugby league team Parramatta Eels are played here sporadically .

The Waikato Stadium was built on the site of the former Rugby Park stadium . In 1996 the city of Hamilton presented plans to replace both rugby park and Westpac Park cricket stadium with a single new building. Later it turned out that the city only 27 million NZD could contribute instead of the required 52 million. The city council decided to build two smaller stadiums to reduce the cost to 30 million.

Construction began in 2000 and was finished in late 2001. The first game in the new stadium took place on March 1, 2002 between the Chiefs and the Crusaders .

Web links

• Official website (English)