North Harbour Stadium

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North Harbour Stadium is a stadium situated in Albany, in North Shore City, New Zealand. It was opened in 1997, after nearly a decade of discussion, planning and construction. Rugby union, association football, rugby league, and baseball are all played on the main ground. The neighbouring oval plays host to the senior cricket matches. The stadium also hosts large open-air concerts.

It is the home ground for Moana Pasifika, which became the first Super Rugby team to make the stadium its fulltime home with an announcement in 2024.^[1] The team will begin playing its home games at the ground in 2025.

Since the stadium opened in 1997, it has been used by the North Harbour side in the National Provincial Championship, taking over from North Harbour's previous home venue, Onewa Domain in Takapuna. From 1997 to 1998 it hosted home games for the Chiefs when the Hamilton-based side represented North Harbour for a short time.^[2] In 1999, North Harbour fell under the Auckland Blues which typically hosted one of its home games in Albany each year until 2019. In 2022 the Blues hosted a one-off Super Rugby game at North Harbour when Covid restrictions prevented a fixture against the Highlanders from being taken to Whangarei.^[3]

It has played host to several rugby union and rugby league internationals. The

Between January 2014 and January 2019, the stadium was sponsored by QBE Insurance and called QBE Stadium.^[4]

The Auckland Tuatara of the Australian Baseball League use the Stadium as their Home Ground, The Residence began in 2019, after making renovations to make the stadium to make it suitable for baseball.^[5]

In July 2024, new A-League club Auckland FC announced that their headquarters and training base would be at this stadium.^[6]

In September 2024, it was announced that Moana Pasifika would make North Harbour Stadium its fulltime home, with five games to be hosted at the venue in 2025.^[7] It will be the first time since 2015 that more than one Super Rugby game is played at the stadium in a single season.

It has an official capacity of 22,000 for sporting events. The stadium has four seating areas – the main grandstand, on the southern side, which seats 12,000 and contains corporate facilities; an uncovered stand opposite which seats 7,000; and grass embankments at either end which each seat 3,000.

The capacity was reduced by demolishing big part of the northwestern stand to accomondate a

A media tower was built prior to the 2011 Rugby World Cup looking down on the uncovered seats and across to the grandstand.

The stadium is lit by four 45-metre tall light towers.

New Zealand won the

https://archello.com/project/north-harbour-stadium-broadcast-tower

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to North Harbour Stadium.

• Official North Harbour Stadium Site
• North Harbour Stadium at Austadiums

Preceded by None; inaugural event	FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup Final Venue 2008	Succeeded by Hasely Crawford Stadium Port of Spain
Preceded by Türk Telekom Stadium Istanbul	FIFA U-20 World Cup Final Venue 2015	Succeeded by Suwon World Cup Stadium Suwon