Waikato Stadium - Chiefs Super Rugby Stadium

Waikato Stadium is the rugby league and football stadium located in Hamilton, New Zealand. The total number of seats and standing seats is 26,350, which increases to more than 30,000 with temporary seating for major competitions. Hamilton City Council Stadium is the home ground of  two rugby union teams and a soccer team:

The Waikato team participates in the Air New Zealand Cup, the top rugby game in New Zealand

The Chiefs participated in the Southern Hemisphere Super Rugby Tournament

Waikato Football Club, a football team in the New Zealand Football Championship

The stadium has also organized New Zealand (All Blacks) and is rarely home to the Parramatta Eels Rugby League (NRL) team.

The stadium was constructed on the site of Rugby Park, the former rugby field of Hamilton. The city of Hamilton declared plans to change Rugby Park and the city's main cricket ground Westpac Park with a large oval stadium on the Rugby Park venue in 1996. However, the city realized that it had only invested 27 million New Zealand dollars, which is much less than the estimated 52 million New Zealand dollars. It was then decided to revamp both stadiums to reduce the total cost to 30 million New Zealand dollars.

New Waikato Stadium construction started in 2002. The venue finished at the end of 2001, and the first match Super 12 Rugby was played between Chiefs VS Crusaders on 1st March 2002 at the new Waikato Stadium.

Famous Competition Record

The stadium has been hosting various events, from sporting competitions to cultural events since 2002, such as Mitre 10 Cup rugby, Super Rugby, men’s and women’s international rugby, Wellington Phoenix football and Kingz, Habitat for Humanity, Summer Jam, Volcanic Paintball, Impact World Tour, WIPSEC Cultural Concert, Crusty Demons, NRL New Zealand Warriors, Regional/National Marching Championship, Kiwi Bowl Gridiron, Waikato FC NZFC matches, and international football games.

A historic victory over the British and Irish Lions Tour was achieved at Waikato Stadium on June 11, 2005.

It was one of four venues for the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup in 2008, in which six group matches and two quarter-finals were played. The three pool matches of the 2011 Rugby World Cup were also held at FMG Waikato, included New Zealand vs Japan, Wales vs Samoa, and Wales vs. Fiji.

 The stadium hosted the 2012 Super Rugby Final between the Sharks and Chiefs on 4 August 2012.

The first Rugby League Test Match was held at Waikato Stadium in 2017. There were two 2017 Rugby League World Cup Group B matches New Zealand vs Tonga and Samoa vs Tonga.

The New Zealand Rugby Sevens 2018 took place from February 3rd to 4th. Waikato Stadium will also host the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup.