Cowles Stadium is a multi-purpose indoor arena in

Aranui Aranui is one of the eastern suburbs of Christchurch. It is a low socio-economic area. In its early years, Aranui grew along Pages Road, the suburb's main road. Aranui soon became a Working class, working-class suburb. There are also areas o ...

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 ...

. It is the home arena of the Canterbury Rams of the New Zealand National Basketball League (NZNBL) and the Mainland Pouākai of the Tauihi Basketball Aotearoa women's basketball league. It is the former home arena of the Christchurch Cougars of the NZNBL and the Christchurch Sirens of the

Women's National Basketball League The Women's National Basketball League (WNBL) is a professional women's basketball list of basketball leagues, league in Australia composed of eight teams. The league was founded in 1981 and is the Women's sports, women's counterpart to the Na ...

(WNBL).

History

Cowles Stadium was constructed by F. W. Matthews, Ltd. Construction began in April 1960 and the stadium opened on 25 September 1961. Cowles Stadium was named in commemoration of William James Cowles, a Christchurch city councilor and sports administrator whose advocacy for an indoor sports stadium led to its construction. Cowles sponsored and supervised the stadium's construction.

Events

Cowles Stadium served as a venue for badminton at the 1974 British Commonwealth Games and volleyball and basketball at the 1989 World Games for the Deaf. The Benson & Hedges Classic men's

Grand Prix tennis The ITF Grand Prix Circuit was a professional tennis tour for male players founded in 1970 as the ILTF Grand Prix Tennis Circuit it was administered by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and ran annually until 1989 when it and the rival ...

tournament was held at Cowles Stadium during the

1973 Events January * January 1 – The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark 1973 enlargement of the European Communities, enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union. * January 14 - The 16-0 19 ...

and

1974 Major events in 1974 include the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis and the resignation of United States President Richard Nixon following the Watergate scandal. In the Middle East, the aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur War determined politics; ...

circuits. The tournament venue was shifted from

Wilding Park Wilding Park is a tennis facility located in Christchurch, New Zealand. The land at Wilding Park was purchased by the Canterbury Lawn Tennis Association in the early 1920s and gradually developed into a tennis centre. Several years ago, during ...

to Cowles Stadium during the 1973 tournament due to rain, and remained indoors at Cowles Stadium in 1974 to avoid further potential disruptions from bad weather. Cowles Stadium is the venue for the Dead End Derby roller derby league.

Home teams

Cowles Stadium was the home arena for the Canterbury Rams basketball team from the first NBL season in 1982 until 1999, when they relocated to Westpac Arena. The Rams returned to Cowles Stadium in 2007. In 2008, the Rams withdrew from the NBL and were replaced by the Christchurch Cougars, who used Cowles Stadium as their home arena for the

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

and 2010 NBL seasons. The Cougars were barred from playing at Cowles Stadium in 2011 due to an unpaid debt to 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 ...

and withdrew from the league following the

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 ...

. The Rams returned to the NBL for the 2014 NBL season and have used Cowles Stadium as their home arena since their return. Cowles Stadium was the home arena of the Christchurch Sirens from November 2007 for the 2007–08 WNBL season — their only season in the WNBL. The Sirens relocated from Westpac Arena along with the Rams following upgrades to Cowles Stadium. Cowles Stadium has been the home arena of Mainland Pouākai of the Tauihi Basketball Aotearoa women's basketball league from the league's debut in 2022. The Mainland Tactix netball team used Cowles Arena as one of their home arenas for the 2022 ANZ Premiership season.

Earthquakes

Cowles Stadium was used as a welfare centre after the 2010 Canterbury earthquake, February

, and June 2011 Christchurch earthquake. It was closed in 2011 due to roof damage cause by the earthquakes and re-opened in August 2012 following $480,000 renovations for repairs and earthquake strengthening.

References

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External links

Cowles Stadium
at

website 1961 establishments in New Zealand Sports venues in Christchurch Indoor arenas in New Zealand Basketball venues in New Zealand 1960s architecture in New Zealand Badminton venues