North Harbour Stadium

North Harbour Stadium is the home ground for one major sporting team:

* The North Harbour rugby union side in the Air New Zealand Cup.

It was the home ground for The New Zealand Knights, the one New Zealand soccer team in the otherwise all-Australian Hyundai A-League, from 2005 until their license was revoked by the league at the completion of the 2006/2007 season.

It is also the venue of at least one Auckland Blues home game in the Super 14. It has hosted several rugby league internationals, and it has also hosted rugby internationals – typically the first All Blacks test each year. The New Zealand Warriors National Rugby League (NRL) team occasionally play warm-up matches at the ground.

Open-air concerts are occasionally held at the stadium, with The Corrs performing in 2001. Luciano Pavarotti performed recently, as did Roger Waters of Pink Floyd as a part of his Dark Side of the Moon tour.

Radio Control Car Racing is occasionally held in a racetrack next to one of the carparks.

Current Seating

North Harbour Stadium has four main seating areas with an official capacity of 25,000. 19,000 (76%) of this capacity is seated, and the other 6,000 are on grass embankments.

* Main Grandstand – A futuristic looking structure with a distinctive arched roof. It has three main tiers of seating, as well as a row of corporate boxes and several corporate lounges. A total of 12,000 can be seated, mostly under the roof. This is on the southern side of the ground.

* Open Stand – A single uncovered tier opposite the Main Grandstand that can seat 7,000.

* Embankments – At either end (East/West) of the ground, there is a single-tier grass embankment with a capacity of 3,000 people. The scoreboard is at the Western End, while the replay screen is directly opposite.

The stadium is lit with four 45m tall light towers.

(source .. wikipedia) reproduced under GFDL

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North Harbour Stadium official website
www.allblacks.com
New Zealand Rugby Football Union
wikipedia entry

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