Installing Christchurch stadium’s 5000 ‘temporary’ seats costs six figures

Friday, 13 March 2026

Christchurch’s new stadium can add 5000 temporary seats on this concrete slab at the northern end, but hospitality and entertainment will be there for the opening rugby event. (File image)

Christchurch’s new stadium’s 5000 temporary seats, which increased the project’s cost by $50 million in 2021 and will be used once this year, cost six figures to install, The Press has learned.

At the opening Super Round event, in the space instead will be entertainment performances, merchandise stands, small retractable grandstands, and unlimited food and beverages for guests.

The Press understands from sources the cost of putting up the temporary stand is in the mid-six figures. That means in the ballpark of $100 per seat to break even.

The temporary stand is currently only booked for the singular All Blacks test against France in July.

An artist’s impression of the stadium in use for a game without the temporary stand.

To the surprise of some city councillors this week, it transpires it must be built from scratch for each event using scaffolding and in-ground fixings, and takes an estimated 12 days to install. The venue hirer, who bears the installation costs, decides whether or not to use it.

What will be there instead?

For the stadium’s Anzac Weekend Super Round matches, Super Rugby Pacific chose to use the Lancaster Pad to set up two areas.

One is the exclusive Crusaders and Venues Ōtautahi Field Club hospitality area, which accommodates 400 guests.

Super Round will have two areas on the Lancaster pad for the exclusive Crusaders Field Club, and a space for merchandise stands and activities open to anyone.

The Field Club sold out for the Friday night opening match between the Crusaders and Waratahs. Tickets (which cost $486) for Saturday and Sunday were tracking towards selling out, Venues Ōtautahi chief executive Caroline Harvie-Teare said.

At the back of the Field Club area will be members areas “with the likes of bouncy castles and things like that”, Harvie-Teare said.

The second area in the northern temporary stand spot will have mechanise stands and activities open to anyone with a ticket.

In a joint statement with the Crusaders, Super Rugby Pacific said it chose entertainment and hospitality in the area, over extra seats, to lift the atmosphere.

Crusader Noah Hotham, mayor Phil Mauger, Crusaders chief executive Colin Mansbridge and Super Rugby Pacific chief executive Jack Mesley announcing Super Round coming to Christchurch last year.

The organisations teased there would be several yet-to-be-announced performances in that area too.

“With this being the first time Super Round is hosted in New Zealand, and the first major event hosted in the stadium, we have prioritised maximising the fan experience for those attending,” they said.

“With fans travelling from around the country and across the Pacific for an event where they will be in the stadium for multiple days, and for long periods of time, having the area open provides flexibility.”

Harvie-Teare said Venues Ōtautahi presents hirers with both options – the Field Club or temporary seating. She earlier would not disclose the cost of the seating installation, citing commercial sensitivity, and added costs were not yet finalised, but building consent had been issued.

'It'll come down to a combination of capacity driven, commercially driven, optics driven. There's a whole bunch of things that go into that choice for them,' she said.

Inside One New Zealand Stadium at Te Kaha during a tour in December.

Why not 30,000 seats for the Warriors?

The Warriors NRL game at One New Zealand Stadium in June sold out of general seating in five days, making it the fastest selling regular season game in the club’s history outside the opening match against the Brisbane Broncos in 1995.

That fixture, too, will offer the hospitality space instead of extra temporary seating.

“This was a commercial decision made to accommodate demand for both seating and hospitality,” said Glenn Harris, chief operating officer of commercial and marketing.

What was the decision?

In 2021, the council voted to build a 30,000-seat stadium after a petition with more than 24,000 signatures demanded a bigger venue. The stadium was designed with 25,000 permanent seats and capacity for 5000 temporary seats at the northern end.

That was despite a 2019 investment case presented to council noting an arena with 30,000 permanent seats was inappropriate for Christchurch’s events market as it “would feel largely empty on many occasion, filling ‘regularly’ only for major events and All Blacks tests”.

It noted event promoters and New Zealand Rugby explicitly stated national content or major tests would not go to an arena significantly below 25,000 patrons, particularly if it was uncovered, in the South Island.