Rugby League Park is a sports stadium in

Christchurch Christchurch (; ) is the largest city in the South Island and the List of cities in New Zealand, second-largest city by urban area population in New Zealand. Christchurch has an urban population of , and a metropolitan population of over hal ...

, New Zealand. It is currently known for sponsorship reasons as Apollo Projects Stadium, and non-commercially as Christchurch Stadium. The stadium was originally known as the Addington Showgrounds until 1997. Due to sponsorships since 2012 it was also named AMI Stadium and Orangetheory Stadium. Rugby League Park is part of a complex with Wolfbrook Arena and

Addington Raceway Addington Raceway or The Met is the home of the Metropolitan Trotting Club in Addington, Christchurch in New Zealand. The venue consists of a trotting track, a greyhound track, conference centre and restaurants. It is also home to many feature ...

in the suburb of Addington.

History

20th century

The park has hosted international rugby league matches since the 1950s, including

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the name is ...

matches in

1975 It was also declared the ''International Women's Year'' by the United Nations and the European Architectural Heritage Year by the Council of Europe. Events January * January 1 – Watergate scandal (United States): John N. Mitchell, H. R. ...

1977 Events January * January 8 – 1977 Moscow bombings, Three bombs explode in Moscow within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group. * January 10 – Mount Nyiragongo erupts in eastern Zaire (no ...

1988 1988 was a crucial year in the early history of the Internet—it was the year of the first well-known computer virus, the Morris worm, 1988 Internet worm. The first permanent intercontinental Internet link was made between the United State ...

, 1990 and 1991. The ground was bought by

Canterbury Rugby League Canterbury Rugby League is the regional body that administers rugby league in Canterbury, New Zealand. CRL manages local competitions from senior level down to age group competitions. Canterbury Rugby League also manages the Canterbury rugby le ...

from the

Christchurch City Council The Christchurch City Council (CCC) is the local government authority for Christchurch in New Zealand. It is a territorial authority elected to represent the people of Christchurch. Since October 2022, the Mayor of Christchurch is Phil Ma ...

in the 1990s. It was at this ground that the Kiwis won the

1988 Great Britain Lions tour The 1988 Great Britain Lions tour was the Great Britain national rugby league team's 18th tour of Australasia and took place from May to July 1988. It started with a Test match (rugby league), Test match against Papua New Guinea national rugby le ...

's sole test in New Zealand to qualify for the

1985–1988 Rugby League World Cup The 1985–1988 Rugby League World Cup (sometimes shortened to 1988 Rugby League World Cup) was the ninth edition of the Rugby League World Cup. Unlike previous World Cups that were held over a couple of months, this World Cup was held over the ...

final.

21st century

Rugby League Park sustained significant damage during the February

2011 Christchurch earthquake A major earthquake occurred in Christchurch on Tuesday 22 February 2011 at 12:51 p.m. New Zealand Daylight Time, local time (23:51 Coordinated Universal Time, UTC, 21 February). The () earthquake struck the Canterbury Region ...

and was closed until 24 March 2012. After the earthquake, the stands had to be demolished. The 2011 earthquake also damaged AMI Stadium at Lancaster Park, the main sporting ground in Christchurch, beyond repair. As a temporary replacement for the city, Rugby League Park was upgraded and renamed AMI Stadium to seat 18,000 by March 2012 with a possible expansion to 26,000 for major games. As a result, the

Crusaders The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and at times directed by the Papacy during the Middle Ages. The most prominent of these were the campaigns to the Holy Land aimed at reclaiming Jerusalem and its surrounding ...

are based there indefinitely, and the stadium has also hosted

All Blacks The New Zealand national rugby union team, commonly known as the All Blacks, is the representative men's national team in the sport of rugby union for the nation of New Zealand, which is considered the country's national sport. Famed for th ...

test matches as well as a

Wellington Phoenix Wellington Phoenix Football Club is a professional football club based in Wellington, New Zealand. It competes in the Australian A-League Men, under licence from Football Federation Australia. Phoenix entered the competition in the 2007–08 ...

pre-season match in September 2012. On 9 November 2013 it held a round 5 A-League match between Wellington Phoenix and

Perth Glory Perth Glory Football Club is an Australian professional Association football, soccer club based in Perth, Perth, Western Australia. It competes in the country's premier men's competition, A-League Men, under Professional sports league organi ...

in which the teams drew 1–1. On 14 May 2016, the ground played host to an

NRL The National Rugby League (also known as the NRL Telstra Premiership for sponsorship reasons) is a professional rugby league competition in Oceania which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria (state), Victoria, the Austral ...

match between the

Penrith Panthers The Penrith Panthers are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the Greater Western Sydney suburb of Penrith, New South Wales, Penrith that competes in the National Rugby League (NRL). The team is based west of the cen ...

and the

New Zealand Warriors The Warriors are a professional rugby league football club based in Auckland, New Zealand that competes in the National Rugby League (NRL) premiership and is the League's only team from outside Australia. They were formed in 1995 as the Aucklan ...

with the former being the home team. Another NRL game took place on 9 June 2018 with the

Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles The Manly Warringah Sea Eagles are an Australian professional rugby league club based in Sydney's Northern Beaches. They compete in the National Rugby League (NRL). The Manly club debuted in the 1947 New South Wales Rugby Football League sea ...

replacing Penrith as the home team against the Warriors. The Sea Eagles played another game at the stadium in 2019 but decided to not play in Christchurch in the 2020 season. On 6 July 2018, the stadium was officially renamed to the Wyatt Crockett Stadium, becoming de-branded from AMI Stadium. This was to commemorate the Crusaders player

Wyatt Crockett Wyatt William Vogels Crockett (born 24 January 1983) is a former New Zealand rugby union player. He played at prop for the Crusaders in Super Rugby, Canterbury and Tasman in the National Provincial Championship, and the New Zealand national tea ...

reaching the milestone of playing 200 Super Rugby matches. From June 2019, the stadium was known as Orangetheory Stadium. In August 2023 it was renamed Apollo Projects Stadium, sponsored by a design and construction company. In 2023, the

announced a three-year deal to play one home game a year in Christchurch from the

2024 NRL season The 2024 NRL season was the 117th season of professional rugby league in Australia and the 27th season run by the National Rugby League (NRL). The season consisted of 27 competition rounds, followed by a finals series contested by the top eight ...

onwards with Rugby League Park hosting the matches in 2024 and 2025 before

Te Kaha Te Kaha is a small New Zealand community situated in the Bay of Plenty near Ōpōtiki. The New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage gives a translation of "the rope" for . The full name of Te Kaha is Te-Kahanui-A-Tikirākau. Te Kaha is a ...

opens its doors in 2026. The Warriors defeated the

Canberra Raiders The Canberra Raiders are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the national capital city of Canberra, Australian Capital Territory. They have competed in Australasia's elite rugby league competition, the National Rugb ...

18–10 in the first of the fixtures on 22 March 2024. In 2024, the

also announced a three-year deal to play one home game a year in Christchurch from the 2024-25 A-League Men's season onwards with Rugby League Park hosting the match in the 2024-25 season before

opens its doors in 2026 for the matches in 2025-26 and 2026-27 seasons. The Phoenix drew to

Central Coast Mariners Central Coast Mariners Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Gosford, on the Central Coast of New South Wales. It competes in the A-League Men, under licence from the Australian Professional Leagues (APL). The Mar ...

0–0 in the first match on 25 January 2025, with an attendance of 14,064.

International rugby league matches

A list of rugby league test matches played at the Addington Showgrounds / Rugby League Park.Rugby League Park @ Rugby League Project
/ref> The old Addington Showgrounds main arena was last used for test football in 1991. The first international rugby league use of the current Rugby League Park stadium was at the

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

References

External links

Orangetheory Stadium page at VbaseChristchurch Stadium
broken ''med.govt.nz''
Rugby League Park
''rleague.com''

''rugbyleagueproject.org'' {{2017 RLWC venues Sports venues in Christchurch Rugby league stadiums in New Zealand Rugby union stadiums in New Zealand Association football venues in New Zealand 2011 Christchurch earthquake Crusaders (rugby union)