 Aerial view of Rugby League Park in July 2012 | |
 Interactive map of Rugby League Park | |
| Former names | Addington Showgrounds AMI Stadium(sponsored) Orangetheory Stadium(sponsored) |
|---|---|
| Location | 95 Jack Hinton Drive,Addington,Christchurch, New Zealand |
| Coordinates | 43°32′37″S172°36′15″E / 43.5437°S 172.6041°E /-43.5437; 172.6041 |
| Owner | Canterbury Rugby League |
| Capacity | 17,104 (Sport mode) |
| Construction | |
| Expanded | 24 March 2012 |
| Architect | Populous |
| Tenants | |
| Canterbury Bulls,South Island,Crusaders[1] | |
Rugby League Park is a sports stadium inChristchurch, New Zealand. It is currently known for sponsorship reasons asApollo Projects Stadium, and non-commercially asChristchurch Stadium.[2][3]
The stadium was originally known as theAddington Showgrounds until 1997.[4] Due to sponsorships since 2012 it was also namedAMI Stadium[5] andOrangetheory Stadium.[6]
Rugby League Park is part of a complex withWolfbrook Arena andAddington Raceway in the suburb ofAddington.
The park has hosted international rugby league matches since the 1950s, includingWorld Cup matches in1975,1977,1988,1990 and 1991.
The ground was bought byCanterbury Rugby League from theChristchurch City Council in the 1990s.
It was at this ground that the Kiwis won the1988 Great Britain Lions tour's sole test in New Zealand to qualify for the1985–1988 Rugby League World Cup final.
Rugby League Park sustained significant damage during the February2011 Christchurch earthquake and was closed until 24 March 2012.[7] After the earthquake, the stands had to be demolished.
The 2011 earthquake also damagedAMI Stadium at Lancaster Park, the main sporting ground in Christchurch, beyond repair. As a temporary replacement for the city, Rugby League Park was upgraded and renamed AMI Stadium to seat 18,000 by March 2012 with a possible expansion to 26,000 for major games. As a result, theCrusaders are based there indefinitely, and the stadium has also hostedAll Blacks test matches as well as aWellington Phoenix pre-season match in September 2012.[1][8][9]On 9 November 2013 it held a round 5 A-League match between Wellington Phoenix andPerth Glory in which the teams drew 1–1. On 14 May 2016, the ground played host to anNRL match between thePenrith Panthers and theNew Zealand Warriors with the former being the home team.[10] Another NRL game took place on 9 June 2018 with theManly-Warringah Sea Eagles replacing Penrith as the home team against the Warriors.[11] The Sea Eagles played another game at the stadium in 2019 but decided to not play in Christchurch in the 2020 season.
On 6 July 2018, the stadium was officially renamed to the Wyatt Crockett Stadium, becoming de-branded from AMI Stadium. This was to commemorate the Crusaders playerWyatt Crockett reaching the milestone of playing 200 Super Rugby matches.
From June 2019, the stadium was known asOrangetheory Stadium.[12] In August 2023 it was renamed Apollo Projects Stadium, sponsored by a design and construction company.[13]
In 2023, theNew Zealand Warriors announced a three-year deal to play one home game a year in Christchurch from the2024 NRL season onwards with Rugby League Park hosting the matches in 2024 and 2025 beforeTe Kaha opens its doors in 2026.[14] The Warriors defeated theCanberra Raiders 18–10 in the first of the fixtures on 22 March 2024.
In 2024, theWellington Phoenix also announced a three-year deal to play one home game a year in Christchurch from the2024-25 A-League Men's season onwards with Rugby League Park hosting the match in the 2024-25 season beforeTe Kaha opens its doors in 2026 for the matches in 2025-26 and 2026-27 seasons.[15] The Phoenix drew toCentral Coast Mariners 0–0 in the first match on 25 January 2025, with an attendance of 14,064.[16]
Unique Record of Highest Title Win Percentage:
The stadium is notable for having the highest top-flight championship win percentage of any rectangular sporting stadium in the world. Since becoming the primary home of the Crusaders in 2012, having won 8 titles 14 seasons. This produces a championship-era win rate of 57.1%, the highest known percentage for a professional rugby union, rugby league, or football club at a single long-term home ground[17].
For comparison, the second-highest verified percentage belongs toWindsor Park inBelfast, whereLinfield have secured 57 league titles in approximately 121 seasons (57 in 121) since moving to the ground in 1905, yielding a win percentage of around 47.1%[18][19].The third-highest belongs toCeltic Park inGlasgow, where Celtic have won 55 league titles across roughly 134 seasons (55 in 134) since first playing at the ground in 1892, producing a long-term win rate of approximately 41.0%[20][21][22].
The championship win percentage of a stadium is calculated as:
Win Percentage = (Titles Won ÷ Seasons Played) × 100
where Titles Won is the number of top-flight titles won by the tenant while based at the stadium, and Seasons Played is the total seasons the team has called the stadium home. This provides a simple metric for comparing team success across venues.
A list of rugby league test matches played at the Addington Showgrounds / Rugby League Park.[23] The old Addington Showgrounds main arena was last used for test football in 1991. The first international rugby league use of the current Rugby League Park stadium was at the2017World Cup.
| Test# | Date | Result | Attendance | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 29 July 1950 |  New Zealand def. Great Britain 16–10 | 10,000 | 1950 New Zealand vs Great Britain series |
| 2 | 27 June 1953 | New Zealand def. Australia 25–5 | 5,509 | 1953Trans-Tasman Test series |
| 3 | 1 August 1964 | New Zealand def. France 18–8 | 4,935 | 1964 New Zealand vs France series |
| 4 | 19 July 1970 | Great Britain def. New Zealand 23–9 | 8,600 | 1970 New Zealand vs Great Britain series |
| 5 | 4 August 1974 | Great Britain def. New Zealand 17–8 | 6,316 | 1974 New Zealand vs Great Britain series |
| 6 | 15 June 1975 | New Zealand def. France 27–0 | 2,500 | 1975Rugby League World Cup |
| 7 | 12 June 1977 | Great Britain def. New Zealand 30–12 | 7,000 | 1977Rugby League World Cup |
| 8 | 5 August 1979 | Great Britain def. New Zealand 22–7 | 8,500 | 1979 New Zealand vs Great Britain series |
| 9 | 22 July 1984 | New Zealand def. Great Britain 28–12 | 9,824 | 1984 New Zealand vs Great Britain series |
| 10 | 17 July 1988 | New Zealand def. Great Britain 12–10 | 8,525 | 1988 Great Britain Lions tour |
| 11 | 23 June 1991 | New Zealand def. France 32–10 | 2,000 | 1991 New Zealand vs France series |
| 12 | 4 November 2017 | New Zealand def. Scotland 74–6 | 12,130 | 2017Rugby League World CupGroup B |
| 13 | 18 November 2017 |  Tonga def. Lebanon 24–22 | 8,309 | 2017Rugby League World CupQuarter finals |
| 14 | 9 November 2019 |  Fiji def. Papua New Guinea 22–20 | 8,875 | 2019Oceania Cup Group B Game 3 |
| 15 | New Zealand def. Great Britain 23–8 | 2019Baskerville Shield 2nd Test | ||
| 16 | 27 October 2024 | Australia def. New Zealand 14–0 | 10,289 | 2024Pacific Championships Women's Cup Game 2 |
| 17 | Australia def. New Zealand 22–10 | 17,005 | 2024Pacific Championships Men's Cup Game 2 |
