Businesses around Christchurch's new stadium are buzzing about the first sports match at the $683 million arena on Friday night and making preparations for an influx of patrons.
The Crusaders will play the New South Wales Waratahs in Super Rugby Pacific's Super Round in front of 25,000 people at One New Zealand Stadium.
Restaurants and bars closest to the stadium were gearing up for a bumper weekend, with 75,000 people expected at the arena over three days.
Dux Central owner Richard Sinke had been waiting a long time for this moment.
"I took the lease in 2014 thinking that the stadium was going to open in 2019, so it's been a long wait from then until now 12 years. So yeah, thrilled."
His restaurant was booked solid and his team had been moving furniture to make more space.
"We've got the Queensland Reds supporters club coming, lots of other big companies with their staff, lots of smaller groups. We're looking forward to hosting lots of people and seeing Christchurch step into a whole new level of entertainment and opportunity."
The stadium was the last of Christchurch's anchor projects designed to revitalise it after the earthquakes.
Dux Central was one of a number of businesses that spent about a year buried in roadworks while construction was carried out.
But now Sinke was in a prime spot for tens of thousands of punters heading to events.
"It was a pretty hard disillusioning time with the roadworks on, loss of carparks, people couldn't access us very easily, plus the country was in recession so it was a tricky time for trading for a lot of people in this area here so we're really pleased to see it moving ahead."
He took over the lease of the business in December last year and had worked to ensure its opening would line up with the stadium's first event.
"We just finished designing our shop and we finished designing the menu and we're ready for this week the opening of the stadium. We're very excited to start and rock and roll.
"The spot is a very good spot near Ara and the stadium in the heart of the city."
"The central city rebuild was largely led by the private sector. Many of these businesses made their decisions to reinvest back into the central city of Christchurch on the basis that they would have a stadium and a convention centre.
"The completion of the stadium is a huge milestone and so this is now payback for those businesses."
Christchurch NZ head of major events Karena Finnie said the Super Round was projected to attract about 13,500 visitors to the city who would bring about $6 million in visitor spending over the long weekend.
"This weekend will be the icing on the cake for the biggest fortnight of events Christchurch has seen. Between the 65,000 attendees at the sold-out Supercars event and the 75,000 attendees expected at Super Round this weekend, we are projecting a total visitor spend of $16 million.
"These events have also extended our traditional late summer high season into the autumn, meaning high occupancy rates in hotels and even more visitor spending in the periods surrounding these huge events."
"These are the sorts of events that really give us a huge economic boost. And of course all of the suppliers to the hotels and bars and restaurants as well so the food growers and producers, they also reap the benefits.
The stadium would host its first concert in May with Six60 and Synthony.
British pop superstar Robbie Williams was scheduled to be the first international act to play at the stadium in November, followed by rock legends Foo Fighters in January 2026.
