About

New Zealand's largest stadium, remade to host the Rugby World Cup and to carry Auckland's biggest days for years after.

Eden Park

Redevelopment

Project Leads

Waren Warfield James Peacock Bruce McDonald

Client

Eden Park Trust

Service

Management

Value

$240 million+

Location

Auckland

Sector

Sports & Recreation

Status

Completed 2011

Eden Park was chosen to host the Rugby World Cup 2011 final, but the ground had not staged an event on that scale since the 1990 Commonwealth Games. The stadium had grown tired and unprofitable, its rugby and cricket crowds falling, hemmed inside a residential Mt Eden neighbourhood that capped how far it could grow. Auckland needed room for around 60,000 people for the tournament, and a stadium worth coming back to once the Cup had moved on.

Eden Park Trust engaged RCP to manage the redevelopment, from design and consenting through procurement and construction. The East and South Stands were replaced with new buildings and connecting concourses, lifting permanent capacity to 50,000, with corporate suites, function spaces, food and beverage and media facilities built in so the stadium could earn between events.

With a tournament date that could not move, RCP staged the design so construction could start earlier, and staged the build itself to protect the programme and leave time to test the finished stadium. Expanding a live stadium in a residential area meant working through consent variations and keeping neighbours alongside the project, with crowd movement and transport planned to move large numbers in and out without swamping the surrounding streets.

RCP also managed the Rugby World Cup event overlay, the temporary grandstands and the media, hospitality and corporate infrastructure that lifted Eden Park to around 60,000 seats for the tournament and came down once it was over.

Eden Park reopened in 2010 and hosted the Rugby World Cup 2011 final, the biggest event the national stadium had held in more than twenty years.

Awards

Property Council of New Zealand 2011, Excellence in Tourism and Leisure Property