Wellington Sports Travel Tips by Kakapo2

Theme: Sports Watching

This venue at Queen’s Wharf is Wellington’s largest indoor sporting stadium, and home to the Wellington Saints basketball team and the Capital Shakers netball team – if the latter change their name (what happened lately) I will almost certainly not get aware of it, as I am absolutely not interested in netball. I think they should play basketball if they want to be taken seriously in world sports ;-)

The venue hosts national and regional championships for basketball, gymnastics, volleyball and, as said, netball. During the week they also play football there – which now is correctly called football in New Zealand, and not soccer anymore because only Americans need the word soccer, the rest of the world calls their football American Football to distinguish it from the world’s biggest sport.

For a big international sporting event the venue holds up to 3635 spectators.

You get tickets at the Ticketek that is located inside the building.


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Address: Queens Wharf
Website: http://www.wellingtonconventioncentre.com/planning/venues/eventscentre/

Theme: Sports Watching

Of course, the Westpac (Trust) Stadium is Wellington’s most important sports venue, as it is home to the Hurricanes, playing in the rugby Super 14 league.

It sits right on the Waterfront, past the Bluebridge and Interislander ferry terminals. Driving down the hill from Otari you immediately see why its nickname is Cake Tin.

The most convenient way to access it is from the Railway Station. You have access to a pedestrian walkway straight from the platforms. The ticket booths are at the end of the 680 metre long walkway. You have access to the stadium up to three hours before the event.

The stadium is a non-smoking area but has two smoking areas.

Tickets for the Hurricanes’ games cost from $ 10 to 53 (as April 2008).

Tickets available at Ticketmaster
Phone (0800) 111 999
www.ticketmaster.co.nz

The football team Wellington Phoenix also play at the Westpac Stadium. Capacity is 34,500 spectators.

Very limited parking space, so you better use public transportation and make the short walk from the Railway Station.

Photo 2 shows the stadium from the highway, with lots of ship containers.


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Website: http://www.westpactruststadium.co.nz/
Other Contact: www.ticketmaster.co.nz

Theme: Sports Watching

The Wellington Phoenix are New Zealand’s only professional football team, playing in the Australian A-League.

They are the successors of the Auckland Knights who did not attract any supporters (ok, ok, a handful were there for most games…). The NZ football federation had to negociate with the Aussie federation to keep the license in NZ, and a rich business man named Tony Serepisos invested a lot of money to shift the team to Wellington in 2007, and keep the professional football business going. The national coach Ricki Herbert is also the coach of the Phoenix. Their fans call themselves Yellow Fever.

Although the Phoenix showed some great performances and were much stronger than their successor team, they ended up on the eighth and last place in the A-League, with five wins, five draws and 11 losses in 21 games, accumulating 20 points. The Perth Glory also had only 20 points but a slightly better goal difference.

The Phoenix play their home games in the same stadium as the Hurricanes, in the Westpac Stadium.

If you want a Phoenix shirt or any other memorabilia and fan articles, you can get this at the Phoenix retail store at the corner of Cuba and Dixon Streets.

Contact:

Phone (04) 894-3370
Email: enquiries@wellingtonphoenix.com
Club Website: http://www.wellingtonphoenix.com/
Fan Website: http://yellowfever.co.nz/


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