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| Location | Newtown,Wellington,New Zealand |
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| Coordinates | 41°19′13″S174°46′57″E / 41.32028°S 174.78250°E /-41.32028; 174.78250 |
| Owner | Wellington City Council |
| Operator | Wellington City Council |
| Capacity | 5,000 |
| Surface | Grass field, Rekortan athletics track |
| Construction | |
| Opened | 1881 |
| Renovated | 2008 |
| Tenants | |
| Athletics Wellington Kiwi Amateur Athletic Club Wellington United | |
Newtown Park is amulti-purpose stadium inWellington, New Zealand, owned and managed byWellington City Council.[1] It is used forfootball (soccer) matches in winter, andtrack and field athletics in summer. Newtown Park is the primary athletics stadium for the Wellington region.
The city council grants priority to theWellington United Football club for weekend bookings during the winter season, and priority to Athletics Wellington for weekend bookings during the summer season, and for weekdays outside of school hours.[2][3]
The main arena has a 400-metre, all-weather rubberized athletics track around it, as well as spectator stands and a function room. A second, rectangular pitch (Newtown Park 2) is located to the south of the main arena.
Newtown Park was built in 1881 and was part of Wellington Zoo. The first match played there was an internationalrugby game in1882 where New South Wales beat Wellington 14–2 drawing 5,000 spectators including then Governor SirJames Prendergast.[4][5] It was the main ground for rugby in Wellington untilAthletic Park was opened in 1896. Newtown Park has also been used to house New Zealand troops before they departed for theBoer War,World War I andWorld War II.[6]
Newtown Park has also been used by theWellington rugby league team and theNew Zealand Kiwis for games against visiting international teams. It was first used in 1913 when the visiting Australian's fromNew South Wales defeated Wellington 34–18 in front of 10,000 fans. After numerous games, Wellington last used Newtown Park in 1939.[7]
The #1 pitch was re-developed in 2011 to function as a training venue for teams competing in the2011 Rugby World Cup. During the tournament, football events were relocated to other venues.
Newtown Park was selected as one of the Wellington training venues for use by national representative teams during the2023 FIFA Women's World Cup. As part of preparations for hosting these events, the Wellington City Council made improvements to the Newtown Park facilities, including renovation of both turf fields, the installation of floodlights in the main arena, and upgrades of the showers and changing rooms.[8]
Events at Newtown Park are organised by Wellington United during the winter football season.
The second pitch, was used byA-League franchiseWellington Phoenix for training and minor exhibition matches before they moved toMartin Luckie Park and then out toFraser Park in Lower Hutt.[9][10]
Newtown Park is the main venue for regional track and field meets managed by Athletics Wellington during the summer season.[13]
In January 2022, the North Island Colgate Games for children aged 7–14 were held at Newtown Park, with 1,200 athletes taking part.[14]
Newtown Park was the venue for the2023 New Zealand Track and Field Championships held from 2-5 March 2023,[15] and the2024 New Zealand Track and Field Championships from 14-17 March 2024.[16]
School athletics events held at Newtown Park include the McEvedy Shield competition, an annual athletics series between four Wellington boys schools.[17] It is also used by many other schools, and school sports associations as a place to stage in-house athletics events.[18]
The Kiwi Athletic Club has their base at Newtown Park.
Newtown Park also occasionally serves as a community events centre for the surrounding area, and has hosted cultural events such as Carols by Candlelight.[19]
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