Wellington Regional Stadium and CentrePort Wellington, 2015
Wellington Regional Stadium (known commercially as Sky Stadium through naming rights)[5][6] is a major sporting venue in Wellington, New Zealand. The stadium's bowl site size is 48,000 m2 (520,000 sq ft).
The stadium also serves as a large-capacity venue for concerts and is known colloquially as "The Cake Tin".[7]
History
The stadium was built in 1999 by Fletcher Construction and was the first bowl stadium built in New Zealand. It was built to replace Athletic Park, which was no longer considered adequate for international events due to its location and state of disrepair. The stadium was also built to provide a larger-capacity venue for One Day International cricket matches, due to the Basin Reserve ground losing such matches to larger stadiums in other parts of the country.[8][9]
Naming rights
Westpac Trust, later known as just Westpac, signed on to be the naming sponsor for the stadium when it opened in 2000. That arrangement continued for twenty years until 31 December 2019.[10] On 22 August 2019, it was announced that Sky had signed a six-year agreement to take over as the naming sponsor of the stadium from 1 January 2020.[11]
During the summer the stadium generally hosts international and occasionally domestic limited overs cricket, with the home team being the New Zealand Black Caps for the international contests and Wellington Firebirds for the domestic competition.
Off-field facilities built into the stadium also included the New Zealand Institute of Sport, and a campus for the Wellington School of Cricket, run by the Wellington Cricket Association.
An aerial view of the stadium and its surrounds, 2010
In 2000, the then-Westpac Stadium hosted the Edinburgh Military Tattoo. This was the first time the event was hosted outside Edinburgh, Scotland. They returned to Wellington to play at the stadium again in February 2016.[14]
On 14 October 2007, Australia defeated New Zealand in the Centenary Test rugby league game. The 58–0 defeat set a new record for the largest loss by the New Zealand national rugby league team.
On 1 December 2007, the stadium hosted an exhibition match between Wellington Phoenix FC and the Los Angeles Galaxy. LA Galaxy won 4–1 in front of 31,853 spectators, the largest crowd for non-national football (soccer) match in New Zealand history.[15]
On 17 January 2008, the stadium hosted the kickoff show of the Oceania leg of the Police Reunion Tour[16] and over Easter the inaugural two-day "Rock2Wgtn" music festival, headlined by Kiss and Ozzy Osbourne. Attendance over the two days was around 50,000.[17]
New Zealand hosted the 2008 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup. Six pool matches and two playoff matches were played at the then Westpac Stadium. Due to FIFA rules disallowing host stadia to be named after non-FIFA sponsors, the stadium was officially known as "Wellington Stadium" during the event.
The stadium hosted the national team's 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifying match on 14 November 2009 against Bahrain. New Zealand won the match 1–0, with a record crowd at the time of 35,194 for a football match in New Zealand.[18]
On 28 January 2010, AC/DC kicked off the Australasian leg of its Black Ice World Tour at the stadium. The concert quickly sold out so a second was scheduled for 30 January.[19] The stadium was also a venue for Bon Jovi's The Circle Tour in 2010.
The stadium hosted eight games during the 2011 Rugby World Cup including two quarter-final matches.
On 25 April 2013, the stadium hosted the first AFL game outside of Australia for premiership points with St Kilda hosting Sydney with Sydney winning by 16 points in front of 22,546 spectators.
On 11 May 2013, the stadium and Wellington hosted its first National Rugby League fixture since 2004 with the Auckland-based New Zealand Warriors hosting the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs at the stadium for 'The Capital Clash'.[20] The Warriors wore their 'Capital Clash' jerseys which incorporated the black and gold colours of Wellington and a design based on a strip worn by Wellington Rugby league teams in the 1970s. The Warriors lost the game late in the match in front of 28,096 fans.[21]
On 15 November 2014, the stadium hosted the 2014 Rugby League Four Nations Final. It was the first Four Nations Final held in New Zealand, though the Mount Smart Stadium in Auckland hosted the inaugural final of the tournament, then known as the Tri-Nations, in 1999.[23]
On 8 December 2022, Guns N' Roses performed at the stadium during their 2020 Tour.[29] The Foo Fighters were supposed to play a week later on the 15 December, however it was cancelled after the death of Foo Fighters' drummer Taylor Hawkins.[30]
On 2 February 2023, Ed Sheeran performed as part of his +–=÷× Tour. The crowd of 47,000 was the largest ever attendance for an event at the stadium. Organisers said just over a third of the crowd (16,200) were from outside the Wellington region.[31]
On the 27th January 2024
The Foo Fighters played for the first time in Wellington on there World Tour.
New Zealand v 
West Indies
India
Sri Lanka
Australia
England
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