Wellington Regional Stadium (commercially known as

Sky The sky is an unobstructed view upward from the planetary surface, surface of the Earth. It includes the atmosphere of Earth, atmosphere and outer space. It may also be considered a place between the ground and outer space, thus distinct from ...

Stadium through naming rights) is a major sporting venue in

Wellington Wellington is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the third-largest city in New Zealand (second largest in the North Island ...

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

. The stadium's bowl site size is . The stadium was built in 1999 by

Fletcher Construction The Fletcher Construction Company Limited is a New Zealand construction company and a subsidiary of Fletcher Building. Together with Higgins Contractors Ltd and Brian Perry Civil it makes up the Construction division of Fletcher Building. Fletc ...

and is situated close to major transport facilities (such as

Wellington railway station Wellington railway station, Wellington Central station, or simply Wellington station, is the main railway station serving Wellington, New Zealand, and is the southern terminus of the North Island Main Trunk, Wairarapa Line and Johnsonville Br ...

) north of the CBD. It was built on reclaimed railway land, which was surplus to requirements. The stadium also serves as a large-capacity venue for concerts and is known colloquially as "The Cake Tin".

History

The stadium was built in 1999 by

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 One Day International (ODI) is a format of cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of fifty overs, with the game lasting up to 7 hours. The World Cup, generally held every four yea ...

cricket matches, due to the

Basin Reserve The Basin Reserve, also known as the Cello Basin Reserve for sponsorship reasons, and commonly referred to as the Basin, is a cricket ground in Wellington, New Zealand. It is used for Test cricket, Test matches, and is the main home ground of t ...

ground losing such matches to larger stadiums in other parts of the country.

Naming rights

Westpac Trust, later known as just

Westpac Westpac Banking Corporation, also known as Westpac, is an Australian multinational banking and financial services company headquartered at Westpac Place in Sydney. Established in 1817 as the Bank of New South Wales, it acquired the Commerc ...

, 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. On 22 August 2019, it was announced that

had signed a six-year agreement to take over as the naming sponsor of the stadium from 1 January 2020. In May 2025, it was announced that Sky will relinquish the naming rights at end of their contract, near the end of the year 2025. The Stadium is searching for a new partner.

Tenants

The stadium is a multi-purpose facility, though used mainly for sporting events. It is the home of the

Wellington Lions The Wellington Rugby Football Union (known as the Wellington Lions for competition reasons) are a New Zealand governing body of rugby union in the New Zealand province of Wellington Region. The main stadium is Sky Stadium (formerly named Wes ...

Mitre 10 Cup The mitre (Commonwealth English) or miter (American English; see spelling differences; both pronounced ; ) is a type of headgear now known as the traditional, ceremonial headdress of bishops and certain abbots in traditional Christianity. Mi ...

rugby team and the

Hurricanes A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system with a low-pressure area, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depending on its locat ...

Super Rugby Super Rugby is a men's professional rugby union club competition involving teams from Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands. It has previously included teams from Argentina, Japan, and South Africa. Super Rugby started as the S ...

team. The stadium also hosted the

Wellington Sevens The New Zealand Sevens was an annual rugby sevens tournament held at Waikato Stadium in Hamilton, New Zealand. For the first eighteen years of its history the event was held in Wellington. The event was the third on the World Rugby Sevens Serie ...

, one of the events that was part of the annual

World Rugby Sevens Series The SVNS, known as the HSBC SVNS for sponsorship reasons, is an annual series of international rugby sevens tournaments run by World Rugby featuring national sevens teams. Organised for the first time in the 1999–2000 season as the IRB World ...

for national

rugby sevens Rugby sevens (commonly known simply as sevens, and originally seven-a-side rugby) is a variant of rugby union in which teams are made up of seven players playing seven-minute halves, instead of the usual 15 players playing 40-minute halves. R ...

teams. Sky Stadium regularly serves as a home venue for

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 ...

rugby matches. Sky Stadium is also the home venue for

A-League A-League Men, also known as the Isuzu UTE A-League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional soccer league in Australia and New Zealand and the highest level of the Australian soccer league system. Established in 2004 as the A-League by the ...

team

Wellington Phoenix FC Wellington Phoenix Football Club is a professional association football, football club based in Wellington, New Zealand. It competes in the Australian A-League Men, under Professional sports league organization#Systems around the world, licenc ...

, the stadium often referred to as "The Ring of Fire" by Phoenix supporters. It also serves as a major home venue for the

New Zealand men's national football team The New Zealand men's national football team () represents New Zealand in men's international Association football, football competitions. The team is governed by the governing body for football in New Zealand, New Zealand Football (NZF), whic ...

(the All Whites), notably hosting the home leg of their

2010 FIFA World Cup The 2010 FIFA World Cup was the 19th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national Association football, football teams. It took place in South Africa from 11 June to 11 July 2010. ...

qualification match against Bahrain. During the summer the stadium generally hosts international and occasionally domestic

limited overs cricket Limited overs cricket, also known as white ball cricket, is a version of the sport of cricket in which a match is generally completed within one day. There are a number of formats, including List A cricket (8-hour games), Twenty20 cricket (3-h ...

, with the home team being the New Zealand White Ferns or

Black Caps The New Zealand national cricket team represents New Zealand in men's international cricket. Nicknamed the Black Caps (), they played their first Test in 1930 against England in Christchurch, becoming the fifth country to play Test cricket. ...

for the international contests and

Wellington Firebirds The Wellington Firebirds are one of six New Zealand men's first-class cricket teams that make up New Zealand Cricket. It is based in Wellington. It competes in the Plunket Shield first class (4-day) competition, The Ford Trophy domestic one d ...

for the domestic competition. The stadium has also been used for

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...

matches, including national team fixtures and

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 ...

away fixtures. The

St Kilda Football Club The St Kilda Football Club, nicknamed the Saints, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Melbourne, Victoria. The club plays in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's premier league. The club's name originates fro ...

, an

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

club in the

Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the pre-eminent professional sports, professional competition of Australian rules football. It was originally named the Victorian Football League (VFL) and was founded in 1896 as a breakaway competition ...

(AFL), played home games on

Anzac Day Anzac Day is a national day of remembrance in Australia, New Zealand and Tonga that broadly commemorates all Australians and New Zealanders "who served and died in all wars, conflicts, and peacekeeping operations" and "the contribution and ...

at the venue from 2013 to 2015. 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.

Events

In 2000, the then-Westpac Stadium hosted the

Edinburgh Military Tattoo The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo is an annual series of military tattoos performed by British Armed Forces, Commonwealth and international military bands, and artistic performance teams on the Esplanade of Edinburgh Castle in the capital of ...

. 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. In 2002, during an England versus Black Caps cricket match, director

Peter Jackson Sir Peter Robert Jackson (born 31 October 1961) is a New Zealand filmmaker. He is best known as the director, writer, and producer of the ''Lord of the Rings'' trilogy (2001–2003) and the ''Hobbit'' trilogy (2012–2014), both of which ar ...

recorded 30,000 fans chanting in

Black Speech The Black Speech is one of the fictional languages constructed by J. R. R. Tolkien for his legendarium, where it was spoken in the evil realm of Mordor. In the fiction, Tolkien describes the language as created by Sauron as a cons ...

for the sound of 10,000 chanting

Uruk-hai An orc (sometimes spelt ork; ), in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth fantasy fiction, is a race of humanoid monsters, which he also calls "goblin". In Tolkien's ''The Lord of the Rings'', orcs appear as a brutish, aggressive, ugly, and malevol ...

during the

Battle of Helm's Deep The Battle of Helm's Deep, also called the Battle of the Hornburg, is a fictional battle in J. R. R. Tolkien's ''The Lord of the Rings'' that saw the total destruction of the forces of the Wizard (Middle-Earth), Wizard Saruman by the army of Rohan ...

in the film '' The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers''. On 4 March 2006,

WWE World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) is an American professional wrestling promotion. It is owned and operated by TKO Group Holdings, a majority-owned subsidiary of Endeavor Group Holdings. A global integrated media and entertainment company, ...

's first New Zealand show,

WWE SmackDown Road to WrestleMania 22 Tour WWE (formerly World Wrestling Federation and World Wrestling Entertainment), an American professional wrestling promotion based in Stamford, Connecticut, Stamford, Connecticut, in the United States owned by the McMahon family, has been promoting e ...

, was held at the stadium. 23,875 people attended the televised event. There were nine matches, including a triple threat match between

Kurt Angle Kurt Steven Angle (born December 9, 1968) is an American retired professional wrestler and amateur wrestling, amateur wrestler. He first earned recognition for winning a Wrestling at the 1996 Summer Olympics – Men's freestyle 100 kg, gold me ...

The Undertaker Mark William Calaway (born March 24, 1965), better known by his ring name the Undertaker, is an American retired Professional wrestling, professional wrestler. Widely regarded as one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time, Calaway ...

, and

Mark Henry Mark Jerrold Henry (born June 12, 1971) is an American former powerlifter, Olympic weightlifter, strongman, and retired professional wrestler currently signed to WWE under a Legends contract. Henry is a two-time Olympian (1992 and 19 ...

for the

World Heavyweight Championship (WWE) The World Heavyweight Championship is a men's professional wrestling world heavyweight championship created and promoted by the American promotion WWE, defended on the Raw brand division. It is one of two men's world titles on WWE's main ro ...

Also in 2006, a concert was held by

the Rolling Stones The Rolling Stones are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for over six decades, they are one of the most popular, influential, and enduring bands of the Album era, rock era. In the early 1960s, the band pione ...

, which ended the Australasian leg of its A Bigger Bang World Tour, On 14 October 2007,

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

defeated

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 The Los Angeles Galaxy are an American professional Association football, soccer club based in the Greater Los Angeles area. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Western Conference (MLS), Western Conference. The Gal ...

. LA Galaxy won 4–1 in front of 31,853 spectators, the largest crowd for non-national

football (soccer) Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

match in New Zealand history. On 17 January 2008, the stadium hosted the kickoff show of the Oceania leg of

the Police Reunion Tour The Reunion Tour was a 2007–2008 worldwide concert tour by the Police, marking the 30th anniversary of their beginnings. At its conclusion, the tour became the third (now 19th) List of highest-grossing concert tours, highest-grossing tour of ...

and over Easter the inaugural two-day " Rock2Wgtn" music festival, headlined by

Kiss A kiss is the touching or pressing of one's lips against another person, animal or object. Cultural connotations of kissing vary widely; depending on the culture and context, a kiss can express sentiments of love, passion, romance, sex ...

and

Ozzy Osbourne John Michael "Ozzy" Osbourne (born 3 December 1948) is an English singer, songwriter, and media personality. He rose to prominence during the 1970s as the lead singer of the heavy metal music, heavy metal band Black Sabbath, during which per ...

. Attendance over the two days was around 50,000. New Zealand hosted the

2008 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup The 2008 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup was the first women's football edition of the U-17 World Cup. It was held in New Zealand from 28 October to 16 November 2008. North Korea won the first edition, extending their grip of women's youth footbal ...

. Six pool matches and two playoff matches were played at the then Westpac Stadium. Due to

FIFA The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 1904 to o ...

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 Bahrain, officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, is an island country in West Asia. Situated on the Persian Gulf, it comprises a small archipelago of 50 natural islands and an additional 33 artificial islands, centered on Bahrain Island, which mak ...

. New Zealand won the match 1–0, with a record crowd at the time of 35,194 for a football match in New Zealand. On 28 January 2010,

AC/DC AC/DC are an Australian rock band formed in Sydney in 1973. Their music has been variously described as hard rock, blues rock and Heavy metal music, heavy metal, although the band calls it simply "rock and roll". They are cited as a formativ ...

kicked off the Australasian leg of its

Black Ice World Tour The Black Ice World Tour was a 2008–2010 concert tour by Australian rock band AC/DC, in support of their fifteenth studio album '' Black Ice'', which was released on 20 October 2008. This tour had 8 legs around the world lasting more than 2 ...

at the stadium. The concert quickly sold out so a second was scheduled for 30 January. The stadium was also a venue for

Bon Jovi Bon Jovi is an American Rock music, rock band formed in Sayreville, New Jersey in 1983. The band consists of singer Jon Bon Jovi, keyboardist David Bryan, drummer Tico Torres, guitarists John Shanks and Phil X, percussionist Everett Bradley ...

The Circle Tour The Circle Tour was a worldwide concert tour in 2010 by American rock band Bon Jovi to promote their 11th studio album '' The Circle'' (2009). The tour started in North America and progressed to Europe, South America, Asia and Australia. It inc ...

in 2010. The stadium hosted eight games during the

2011 Rugby World Cup The 2011 Rugby World Cup, was the seventh Rugby World Cup, a quadrennial international rugby union competition inaugurated in 1987. The World Rugby, International Rugby Board (IRB) selected New Zealand as the host country in preference to Japa ...

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 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 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 ...

fixture since 2004 with the

Auckland Auckland ( ; ) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. It has an urban population of about It is located in the greater Auckland Region, the area governed by Auckland Council, which includes outlying rural areas and ...

-based New Zealand Warriors hosting the

Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs The Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs are an Australian professional rugby league club based in Belmore, a suburb in the Canterbury-Bankstown region of Sydney. They compete in the NRL Telstra Premiership, as well as competitions facilitated by ...

at the stadium for 'The Capital Clash'. 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. On 20 November 2013, the stadium hosted the second leg of the World Cup qualification inter-confederation play-off against Mexico, which resulted in New Zealand failing to qualify for the

2014 FIFA World Cup The 2014 FIFA World Cup was the 20th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for list of men's national association football teams, men's national Association football, football teams organised by FIFA. It took place in Brazil fr ...

. On 15 November 2014, the stadium hosted the

2014 Rugby League Four Nations The 2014 Rugby League Four Nations tournament was the fourth staging of the Rugby League Four Nations tournament played in Australia and New Zealand over three weeks from Saturday, 25 October to Saturday, 15 November 2014. The series was contested ...

Final. It was the first Four Nations Final held in New Zealand, though the

Mount Smart Stadium Mount Smart Stadium, currently known as Go Media Stadium for sponsorship reasons, is a multi-purpose stadium in the suburb of Penrose, Auckland, New Zealand. It is the main home ground of the New Zealand Warriors of the National Rugby League a ...

in Auckland hosted the inaugural final of the tournament, then known as the Tri-Nations, in

1999 1999 was designated as the International Year of Older Persons. Events January * January 1 – The euro currency is established and the European Central Bank assumes its full powers. * January 3 – The Mars Polar Lander is launc ...

. The stadium was one of the venues for

2015 Cricket World Cup The 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup was the 11th Cricket World Cup, a quadrennial One Day International (ODI) cricket tournament contested by men's national teams and organised by the International Cricket Council (ICC). It was jointly hosted by Aust ...

which was co-hosted by New Zealand and Australia. It hosted a total of four matches during the World Cup which included a quarter-final clash between the hosts

and

West Indies The West Indies is an island subregion of the Americas, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which comprises 13 independent island country, island countries and 19 dependent territory, dependencies in thr ...

Guns N' Roses Guns N' Roses is an American hard rock band formed in Los Angeles, California in 1985 as a merger of local bands L.A. Guns and Hollywood Rose. When they signed to Geffen Records in 1986, the band's "classic" line-up consisted of vocalist Axl R ...

performed at the stadium during their Not in This Lifetime... Tour on 2 February 2017. On 11 November 2017, the stadium hosted its third World Cup qualification inter-confederation play-off with the New Zealand men's national football team drawing 0–0 against Peru in front of a new record crowd for a football match in New Zealand of 37,034 fans thanks to extra seating install in the stadium for the match. On 2 March 2019, the stadium drew its second largest crowd to date with an attendance of 46,474 for

Eminem Marshall Bruce Mathers III (born October 17, 1972), known professionally as Eminem, is an American rapper, songwriter, and record producer. Regarded as one of the greatest and most influential rappers of all time, he is credited with popula ...

's Rapture concert. On 5 February 2020,

Queen + Adam Lambert Queen most commonly refers to: * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a kingdom * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen (band), a British rock band Queen or QUEEN may also refer to: Monarchy * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * ...

performed at the stadium during their Rhapsody Tour. On 8 December 2022, Guns N' Roses performed at the stadium during their 2020 Tour. The

Foo Fighters The Foo Fighters are an American Rock music, rock band formed in Seattle in 1994. Initially founded as a one-man project by former Nirvana (band), Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl, the band comprises vocalist/guitarist Grohl, bassist Nate Mendel, gu ...

were supposed to play a week later on 15 December, however it was cancelled after the death of Foo Fighters' drummer Taylor Hawkins. On 2 February 2023,

Ed Sheeran Edward Christopher Sheeran ( ; born 17 February 1991) is an English singer-songwriter. Born in Halifax, West Yorkshire, and raised in Framlingham, Suffolk, he began writing songs around the age of eleven. In early 2011, Sheeran independently r ...

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. On 27 January 2024 The Foo Fighters played for the first time in Wellington on their World Tour. The stadium hosted several matches for the

2023 FIFA Women's World Cup The 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup was the ninth edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup, the quadrennial international women's association football, football championship contested by List of women's national association football teams, women's nat ...

. The stadium hosted the semi-finals for OFC qualification for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

Major tournaments

''Reference:'' ''Reference:''

Rugby League Test matches

Since its opening in 2000, Wellington Regional Stadium has hosted six

rugby league internationals. The results were as follows;.

Gallery

File:WWE Road to WrestleMania 22 Tour setup.jpg, The setup of the stadium before the WWE Road to WrestleMania 22 event on 4 March 2006. File:Westpac Stadium Cricket luving Crowd.jpg, An ODI cricket match between

and

in 2009 National Bank series File:Westpac Stadium Crowd.jpg, Crowd at a Tri-Nations rugby union match File:Rock2Wgtn 2008.JPG, Rock2Wgtn Easter weekend 2008 File:WestpacStadiumWellington2011RWChaba.jpeg, The stadium during the pool match between New Zealand and Canada at the 2011 Rugby World Cup File:Westpacnight.jpg, The stadium at night during an ODI match between New Zealand and

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

File:NZ Army Band performance at Westpac Stadium - Flickr - NZ Defence Force (2).jpg, NZ Army Band performance at Wellington Regional Stadium File:End of the concert, Westpac Stadium.jpg, The end of the Police concert on 17 January 2008 File:Japan vs Spain – 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup Group C – 2.jpg,

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

playing against

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

at the

References

External links

*
Cricinfo Wellington Regional Stadium page
* {{Authority control Sports venues in Wellington City Rugby union stadiums in New Zealand Association football venues in New Zealand Cricket grounds in New Zealand Music venues in New Zealand Rugby league stadiums in New Zealand Wellington Phoenix FC Wellington Rugby Football Union Music venues completed in 1999 Sports venues completed in 1999 Hurricanes (rugby union) A-League Men stadiums A-League Women stadiums Former Australian Football League grounds 1990s architecture in New Zealand 1999 establishments in New Zealand