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Saturday’s Chatham Cup and Kate Sheppard Cup finals are the latest in a growing number of community sporting fixtures to take to the turf at One New Zealand Stadium.
The stadium has already hosted Canterbury Rugby’s Metro premier men’s and women’s finals on July 26, as well as the Tane Norton Cup clash between Waitaha and Ellesmere and an under 85kg match between the University of Canterbury and Lincoln University as NPC curtain-raisers.
The Community Open Day in May saw junior rugby, rugby league and football played on the grass just weeks after it opened. Next weekend, two Canterbury under-18 girls’ teams will play as the curtain-raiser to the NPC team’s clash with Wellington.
One NZ Stadium is operated by Venues Ōtautahi. Chief executive Caroline Harvie-Teare said community access to the stadium was a “clear focus” for the organisation.
“Venues Ōtautahi works closely with our community partners and venue hirers to establish opportunities for community events at the stadium. Community access is fundamentally important and is a core focus.”
Canterbury Rugby chief executive Tony Smail said community rugby at the stadium had been well received.
“Everybody wants to come to that stadium, and particularly the two club finals games and Waitaha v Ellesmere, let alone 18s, rippa, kids and families, they’re amazingly supportive of having the opportunity to get there.
“They never ever thought that would be a possibility, or saw the stadium as high performance, professional, out of community rugby’s reach.
“I’ll go back to the city council and when it chose to build that stadium, they always reinforced that it’s a community facility built by the ratepayers, and therefore needs to have an element of community engagement in it.”
Two club players who got the chance to run out on the turf were Marist Albion premier captain Filipo Veamatahau and University of Canterbury under 85kg player Sam McLeod.
Veamatahau found out the club final would be played at One NZ Stadium before his team qualified. He said he felt “lucky” to play there as his side pipped Linwood 29-27 to lift the title.
“It was my first time there, the feel was amazing. Everyone turned up, and for both clubs involved, it was a pretty unreal day.”
McLeod spent his winter turning out for one of University’s colts teams and was tasked with pulling people together for a one-off under 85kg match against Lincoln University. The catch was he could not say the game would be played at the stadium.
“They didn’t want every man and their dog trying to join the team just to play at the stadium, so I was on the recruiting front trying to get people to play.
“When you’re telling people you’re going to play Lincoln, they’re thinking it’s a rainy night out on the No 4 ground at Lincoln, covered in mud.
“We managed to get 20-odd people in at training on a terrible Thursday night and then when you get everyone in the changing room and tell them they’re playing in the stadium, the energy was just through the roof.”
The team played the curtain-raiser to Canterbury’s NPC game against Northland two weeks ago and lost to Lincoln University.
It was not McLeod’s first experience at a big arena. He played twice at Eden Park for St Kentigern’s College in his schoolboy days.
But how do the two stadiums compare?
“At Eden Park, the crowd feels so far away, you feel isolated when you’re out there,” McLeod said.
“Whereas when you play in the Christchurch stadium, the crowd’s right there, everyone’s on top of you, it’s quite a tight-knit experience.”
McLeod’s match drew a modest crowd, made up mostly of friends and family of the players, while Canterbury punters began to trickle in after half-time ahead of the NPC match.
Other matches have drawn impressive crowds. The premier women’s club final between Linwood and Christchurch, won 17-13 by Linwood, attracted more than 3000 people, while the men’s final held on the same day drew about 7500.
Both matches were free for fans. Canterbury Rugby paid to hire the stadium, with only one stand open to the public and food and drink vendors operating there.
Neither Venues Ōtautahi nor Canterbury Rugby would confirm the hire cost, but Smail said it was “significantly different” when booking a community event compared with a professional match.
“You’d be talking 20-25% of the cost,” he said.
“We’ve come to a reasonable approach, and with the cost of what we’re able to hire at, we provided that free entry, and obviously with 7500 people, the venue itself is able to recover something through food and beverage.
“There’s opportunity for everyone to make it worthwhile.”
Harvie-Teare said the finances were not what hosting community events was about. Venues Ōtautahi does not receive operational funding from the council, with costs met through the company’s operating budget.
“Community events are not about the financial benefit, they are about providing opportunities for the community to access, connect with and enjoy their venues.
“Community connection and access to the city venues is not only one of Venues Ōtautahi’s operational performance targets in our statement of intent but is a strategic priority, reflected in our strategic framework.”
So far, rugby has been the only senior community sport to take to the field at One NZ Stadium. That changes this weekend when Cashmere Technical’s men’s and women’s teams play in football’s Chatham Cup and Kate Sheppard Cup finals.
Mainland Football chief executive Martin Field-Dodgson said he was looking forward to seeing football played at the stadium for the first time.
“It’ll be the first time that the round ball gets to grace the new grass. That is incredibly exciting for the footballing community.
“What we’re talking about here is the opportunity for community-level, grassroots players to get out there and play, which is pretty wicked. And there is the chance for people to just rock up, come in and have a look, the excuse is that there’s football on and it’s free.”
But the stadium is not a major drawcard for every organisation.
Canterbury Rugby League chief executive Malcolm Humm said taking games to the ground “certainly isn’t on our radar at the moment”.
CRL staged its junior and senior grand final days recently at Ngā Puna Wai, drawing about 4000 people to each.
“We’ve just had probably one of our most successful grand final days a couple of weeks ago, and I think it just demonstrates the ability we have to run events there,” Humm said.
“It’s an easy place to run events from, it’s fit for purpose. We’ve got a pretty good system at the moment about how it works, and we get really good support from the council.
“I think it’s probably going to be where we’re going to continue to hold events.”
There seems to be an appetite to keep community sport coming back to the stadium.
While there is nothing confirmed beyond next weekend, Harvie-Teare raised the possibility of the club rugby finals becoming a regular fixture.
“The club finals have proven to be popular events across both Apollo Projects Stadium and One NZ Stadium. It is fitting to be able to host the pinnacle game of the men’s and women’s club season in the nation’s premier venue.
“We can also confirm the Community Open Day will be an annual feature, but its dates and format will differ year to year, dependent on other events at the venue.”
McLeod said he would love to return to the stadium if possible.
“I definitely think they should have more community games out there, just because it helps with the promotion of the game, especially before those professional games,” he said.
“It just means that everyone gets an opportunity to play at such an awesome ground.”
Community sport at One NZ Stadium
July 26: Linwood 17 Christchurch 13, premier women’s final
July 26: Marist Albion 29 Linwood 27, premier men’s final
Aug 15: Waitaha 45 Ellesmere 38, Tane Norton Cup
Aug 20: Lincoln Uni 28 University of Canterbury 21, under 85kg
Sep 5: Cashmere Tech v Eastern Suburbs, Kate Sheppard Cup
Sep 5: Cashmere Tech v Fencibles, Chatham Cup
Sep 12: Canterbury under 18 Red v Canterbury under 18 Black, women’s U18