Alternative Wellington Stadium

coochiee

It won't be dismantled until Te Kaha opens.
The Crusaders are still to play at least one home game at Addington 2026 Super Rugby season.

And of course the Nix are scheduled to play there April 18th.

I imagine it's only the more temporary steel scaffolding seating that will be able to be dismantled and reused. A wrecking ball to go through the main concrete grandstand to make why for housing??

All the stands are temporary scaffolding if I recall correctly. None of the old Rugby League Park stands survived after the earthquakes

Half a Pint

coochiee

It won't be dismantled until Te Kaha opens.
The Crusaders are still to play at least one home game at Addington 2026 Super Rugby season.

And of course the Nix are scheduled to play there April 18th.

I imagine it's only the more temporary steel scaffolding seating that will be able to be dismantled and reused. A wrecking ball to go through the main concrete grandstand to make why for housing??

All the stands are temporary scaffolding if I recall correctly. None of the old Rugby League Park stands survived after the earthquakes

That's good news about the seats if they are all temp scaffolding. I know people mentioned that the stadium was on its last legs, so I'd imagine welnix will have to front up some coin to construct a more permanent base for the seating even if the seats are free/cheap. Whatever the case, there might never be a better chance to build a small cheap stadium. I hope they take the opportunity, it would be game changing in every sense.

Big if true

For those who keep banging on about attendances go check the Bulls and Glorys figures for the weekend. Shows its just not us yet some seem to be under the impression we should be averaging about 10k.
We will be doing well if we can get back to 5/6 we used to get.
But thats never goingcto happen unless they start winning consistently.

Where do you find this? (not that I overly personally care about crowd numbers but just interested as to where I can find it). 

ballane

For those who keep banging on about attendances go check the Bulls and Glorys figures for the weekend. Shows its just not us yet some seem to be under the impression we should be averaging about 10k.
We will be doing well if we can get back to 5/6 we used to get.
But thats never goingcto happen unless they start winning consistently.

brookem

Where do you find this? (not that I overly personally care about crowd numbers but just interested as to where I can find it). 

ballane

For those who keep banging on about attendances go check the Bulls and Glorys figures for the weekend. Shows its just not us yet some seem to be under the impression we should be averaging about 10k.
We will be doing well if we can get back to 5/6 we used to get.
But thats never goingcto happen unless they start winning consistently.

https://www.austadiums.com/sport/football or https://www.ultimatealeague.com/

Thank you! 

FransenFC

brookem

Where do you find this? (not that I overly personally care about crowd numbers but just interested as to where I can find it). 

ballane

For those who keep banging on about attendances go check the Bulls and Glorys figures for the weekend. Shows its just not us yet some seem to be under the impression we should be averaging about 10k.
We will be doing well if we can get back to 5/6 we used to get.
But thats never goingcto happen unless they start winning consistently.

https://www.austadiums.com/sport/football or https://www.ultimatealeague.com/

From The Post re: WRFU selling off 50% of the Hurricanes to Summit Capital & NZ Sport Investment, with local businessman Malcolm Gillies heavily involved.

The Hurricanes’ crowd struggles at Sky Stadium have hurt them badly. The Super Rugby club has now lost about $4m in the past three years, raising legitimate questions about whether Wellington needs a new, smaller stadium for its sporting franchises.

With his property developer hat on, Gillies can see the appeal but for now is entirely committed to making it work at the Cake Tin.

“I think all of us are struggling, including the stadium,” Gillies said.
“So, I think, Phoenix, the Hurricanes, Wellington Rugby - we need to work with the stadium to come up with a product that the public want to come and watch.

“We have looked at perhaps the boutique stadium. It wouldn't fit here [Upper Hutt] but when you look at the crowd numbers and you even look at even concerts, there's probably a good case for a 12,000-seat [covered] stadium.

“But that's probably something to be addressed in the future. We think bringing that up right now or even exploring that to any great extent, all you're doing is making it harder on everyone.”

He's a man with a vision, but would clearly need all three parties who currently utilise NZCIS's facilities to jump on board with the new stadium idea - council and government arent gonna chip in.

Agree it will be private money that will be needed for a boutique stadium. The Nix losses must be up there with those of the Hurricanes as our crowd numbers are way down. Hiring a 35,000 seat stadium for 3000 to 4000 spectators is financial suicide. 

For years I've been suggesting making better use of Newtown Park. But nobody on here seems to think it viable. To me it seems a no-brainer.

Build the smaller stadium beside The Cake Tin, 

Jessie Merino

For years I've been suggesting making better use of Newtown Park. But nobody on here seems to think it viable. To me it seems a no-brainer.

Parking and access to start make it a no go for me.
If there is a no brainer for me its Hutt Rec probably the must under utilized area around. It spends most of its time unused except for dog walkers and  and joggers. Then SOME weekends it gets used for rugby or cricket and occasionally athletics. 
Yet the Nimbys out there would have us believe its used alot more than it actually is.
Even with a small stadium put there, there would still be room to have a couple of playing fields. The money it would bring into the Valley  would i have no doubt help many.

The Wellington Regional stadium needed to be a 2 tier rectangular 30k stadium, where you could open the bottom tier only. Far too late now. Time machine best option :/ Its pointless building stadia for a once a year all black test presumably.

I can't really think of a location that you could build a 10-12k stadium at with good public transport options for porirua and the hutt + wellington.

https://www.skystadium.co.nz/fileadmin/Documents/Annual_Reports/WRST_AR25.pdf

Any private option will really undermine the viability of Sky Stadium. Still in surplus - but marginal. 

Sorry if I have got this wrong, just wanted to check. I feel I remember hearing somewhere the reason the men can't do Porirua Park is because it isn't up to the A-League men standard like for VAR or something? Is that right? Or is there another reason why Porirua wouldn't really work for the men? (Though personal preference I like Sky Stadium. Personally easier for me to manage to get to. Also just prefer Sky).  

ballane

Jessie Merino

For years I've been suggesting making better use of Newtown Park. But nobody on here seems to think it viable. To me it seems a no-brainer.

Parking and access to start make it a no go for me.
If there is a no brainer for me its Hutt Rec probably the must under utilized area around. It spends most of its time unused except for dog walkers and  and joggers. Then SOME weekends it gets used for rugby or cricket and occasionally athletics. 
Yet the Nimbys out there would have us believe its used alot more than it actually is.
Even with a small stadium put there, there would still be room to have a couple of playing fields. The money it would bring into the Valley  would i have no doubt help many.

Isn't there a council playing field above Newtown Pk? Melrose Pk or something... It could be turned into a carpark servicing a new 6000 seater Newtown Stadium. Just saying...

Jessie Merino

ballane

Jessie Merino

For years I've been suggesting making better use of Newtown Park. But nobody on here seems to think it viable. To me it seems a no-brainer.

Parking and access to start make it a no go for me.
If there is a no brainer for me its Hutt Rec probably the must under utilized area around. It spends most of its time unused except for dog walkers and  and joggers. Then SOME weekends it gets used for rugby or cricket and occasionally athletics. 
Yet the Nimbys out there would have us believe its used alot more than it actually is.
Even with a small stadium put there, there would still be room to have a couple of playing fields. The money it would bring into the Valley  would i have no doubt help many.

Isn't there a council playing field above Newtown Pk? Melrose Pk or something... It could be turned into a carpark servicing a new 6000 seater Newtown Stadium. Just saying...

There is, but access to that area behind the zoo is down a very narrow street, it wouldnt cope with any increase in traffic.

theprof

Jessie Merino

ballane

Jessie Merino

For years I've been suggesting making better use of Newtown Park. But nobody on here seems to think it viable. To me it seems a no-brainer.

Parking and access to start make it a no go for me.
If there is a no brainer for me its Hutt Rec probably the must under utilized area around. It spends most of its time unused except for dog walkers and  and joggers. Then SOME weekends it gets used for rugby or cricket and occasionally athletics. 
Yet the Nimbys out there would have us believe its used alot more than it actually is.
Even with a small stadium put there, there would still be room to have a couple of playing fields. The money it would bring into the Valley  would i have no doubt help many.

Isn't there a council playing field above Newtown Pk? Melrose Pk or something... It could be turned into a carpark servicing a new 6000 seater Newtown Stadium. Just saying...

There is, but access to that area behind the zoo is down a very narrow street, it wouldnt cope with any increase in traffic.

I know the street. I was actually thinking that Newtown Pk and Melrose Pk - if the latter could be repurposed as a stadium carpark - could be connected around the back of the zoo, to where there's already some limited carparking. But I'm not a civil engineer.

interesting, melrose park backs onto the zoo, as you can see there are walkways down towards newtown park, but the key issue would be getting a few thousand people in and out of the carpark timely and safe way.

melrose to newtown.jpg 224.88 KB

Where the red arrow goes is a bushtrack, so you could make that into a walkway to Newtown park, but the issue remains how you get the vehicles to the car park. Sutherland street would need some work, and if you were going to come in through the parking behind Newtown park then the Zoo would need to lose a lot of ground.

Yeah, you're probably right. Too much trouble. No interest from the council. 
NB they were quick to show interest when they discovered my pal's dog asleep on the pavement, corner of Manchester St. They scooped him up and took him off to the Pound. Released - for a fee.

theprof

interesting, melrose park backs onto the zoo, as you can see there are walkways down towards newtown park, but the key issue would be getting a few thousand people in and out of the carpark timely and safe way.

melrose to newtown.jpg 224.88 KB

Where the red arrow goes is a bushtrack, so you could make that into a walkway to Newtown park, but the issue remains how you get the vehicles to the car park. Sutherland street would need some work, and if you were going to come in through the parking behind Newtown park then the Zoo would need to lose a lot of ground.

 I walked the Southern Walkway on one trip down and recall looking down on a game from around Melrose Park. Checking on Google Earth it is a 50m elevation difference between Newtown Park and Melrose Park ...

zonknz

Heard a rumor this week of a wellington concern making enquiry about the seats from a south island temporary stadium that is about to close...

Circling back to this, for my non-Kiwi reference, are these the potential stands that may travel north to Wellington?

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brookem

Sorry if I have got this wrong, just wanted to check. I feel I remember hearing somewhere the reason the men can't do Porirua Park is because it isn't up to the A-League men standard like for VAR or something? Is that right? Or is there another reason why Porirua wouldn't really work for the men? (Though personal preference I like Sky Stadium. Personally easier for me to manage to get to. Also just prefer Sky).  

if the Men moved to Porirua Park (Newtown Park or Hutt Rec), it would be damaging IMO. They need to either make a 12,000 seater and with the temp seating has anyone mentioned turning Waitangi Park into a 12,000 rectangular stadium? Can be used for gigs and festivals too.

Heard from 3 pretty reliable sources that they all ready looking at if they can develop Fraser park, the temporary stadium from down south actually makes quite a lot of sense in that regard, HCC retain the land (they would regardless but if a proper stadium was built it would be a 50 year lease type thing) and if it doesn’t work out it can be pulled down pretty quick 

I would love sky to remain our home because I want our gate to be consistently 30k+

However, in the meantime…

I also love a more claustrophobic experience of watching football

That comes at a bit of an infrastructure cost yes 

But it isn’t like the Lions or Hurricanes are selling out sky either…

It would be great to build a smaller one next to it.  Move Mainfreight and those other shipping companies somewhere else.  Make another platform so trains can stop on the way there and back on event days.  Well dreams are free.  

YellowAndBlack

Heard from 3 pretty reliable sources that they all ready looking at if they can develop Fraser park, the temporary stadium from down south actually makes quite a lot of sense in that regard, HCC retain the land (they would regardless but if a proper stadium was built it would be a 50 year lease type thing) and if it doesn’t work out it can be pulled down pretty quick 

Exciting.

Though, I've just seen what the whole precinct looks like on Google Maps - there's a lot of rugby, cricket and baseball fields to avoid if they want to put temporary stands up. 

What's everyone's opinion on the location? Not as good as Sky, but acceptable?

WhoStoleMySock

YellowAndBlack

Heard from 3 pretty reliable sources that they all ready looking at if they can develop Fraser park, the temporary stadium from down south actually makes quite a lot of sense in that regard, HCC retain the land (they would regardless but if a proper stadium was built it would be a 50 year lease type thing) and if it doesn’t work out it can be pulled down pretty quick 

Exciting.

Though, I've just seen what the whole precinct looks like on Google Maps - there's a lot of rugby, cricket and baseball fields to avoid if they want to put temporary stands up. 

What's everyone's opinion on the location? Not as good as Sky, but acceptable?

 It's just as niggly as Porirua Park or Newtown. Not as central as needed but if they do it right, people may not complain as much. If they do it wrong, it won't end well.

Dont think its as niggly as Newtown and Porirua at all. Both those really only 1 road leading to them,Fraser Park dosnt have that issue. Think the work arounds will be easier to achieve than both those.
Hopefully the old saying "Build it and they will come" will work out for everyone..
Think some will complain no matter what they do.
Just like the stadium its positioning will suit some but not others. 

It's about a 10 minute walk from Wingate station.  Having to navigate crossing a main road will be challenging and perhaps they'd need traffic management to help out on match days. 

Yeah, getting there by train is a pain, and by car it isnt any easier, parking is good out there but again the main parking is away from where the nix would be.
If it was done properly and timely then I guess it could work.

Screenshot 2025-12-21 121426.jpg 255.05 KB

A pain for me personally, relying on public transport 3 times isn’t ideal given the number of rail replacements there are. But we’re not getting another stadium next to it sadly so guess we’ve got to make do.

Procrastinixing

It's about a 10 minute walk from Wingate station.  Having to navigate crossing a main road will be challenging and perhaps they'd need traffic management to help out on match days. 

Every time I’ve walked there from Wingate for an Academy game I’ve been surprised how quiet High Street is, but fair point it’s different if you’re talking a few thousand people.

I’m biased here because I’ve just moved to a place 30-odd minutes’ walk from Fraser Park, but hey if I can still make it out to Porirua Park by public transport then I’d hope other tragics can do that in reverse - obvious issue being that we need more than a hard-core minority to make games viable.

Just want to be clear this is something there investigating, I’m not saying it’s a done deal, there would still be a lot of negotiation to do with HCC and the sports teams that currently use the field (I’m assuming these negotiations have’nt started as I’d think it would be out in the public with some disgruntled codes) also think someone in a much earlier post pointed out that the ALM has field/facilities minimum requirements and I doubt the facilities at FP would pass muster as they are. It could be a case of IF they do pull the trigger get HCC and other codes blessing the women might play out of there for a season or two well the facilities are brought up to ALM standards 

With Gillies the new Hurricanes owner, I could see him investing in a stadium development that would suit both teams. I think he tried to get something done at NZCIS (which he developed and owns) but couldn’t get it over the line

WhoStoleMySock

zonknz

Heard a rumor this week of a wellington concern making enquiry about the seats from a south island temporary stadium that is about to close...

Circling back to this, for my non-Kiwi reference, are these the potential stands that may travel north to Wellington?

eyJidWNrZXQiOiJ2ZW51ZXNvdGF1dGFoaTAwMS1hc3NldHMiLCJrZXkiOiJpbWFnZXMvSU1HXzU3MTguSlBHIiwiZWRpdHMiOnsianBlZyI6eyJxdWFsaXR5IjoxMDAsInByb2dyZXNzaXZlIjpmYWxzZSwidHJlbGxpc1F1YW50aXNhdGlvbiI6dHJ1ZSwib3Z.jpeg 1.18 MB

The atmosphere is actually pretty good when it's full. Its the way to go, SKY stadium is just too big. And that goes for almost all ALM clubs

3000 at the weekend! Man we are in serious need of a smaller venue. The journos need to start asking the club if they have any plans to move as we won’t survive if we keep getting those kind of crowds at Sky Stadium ! 

WPFC2007_WinOrlose

3000 at the weekend! Man we are in serious need of a smaller venue. The journos need to start asking the club if they have any plans to move as we won’t survive if we keep getting those kind of crowds at Sky Stadium ! 

Move where to there is no where,sadly. Pretty sure the club would love to move but there just isnt a venue that would pass A League standards.

I just worry for the club. Sky would be charging a fortune for that stadium and for the crowds to drop off so much, well it just has me really worried. 

ballane

WPFC2007_WinOrlose

3000 at the weekend! Man we are in serious need of a smaller venue. The journos need to start asking the club if they have any plans to move as we won’t survive if we keep getting those kind of crowds at Sky Stadium ! 

Move where to there is no where,sadly. Pretty sure the club would love to move but there just isnt a venue that would pass A League standards.

 

The A League have to get realistic or they are going to drive clubs under. Its ridiculous seeing these tiny crowds in huge cavenous mega stadiums. Its also a huge waste of money.
Anybody got any ideas on where the Nix could move to quickly.?
You could fit 3000 into Newtown park. Scaffold seating on the bank would help. The pitch is ok but there are no TV quality flood lights. Parking sucks too. But it would be cheap to hire.