Eden Park officially NZ's national stadium - and now allowed more gigs

Eden Park has - for the first time ever - been named Aotearoa's national stadium by the government, and its new official title comes with extra freedom to throw more events.

The recognition is part of the new Auckland City Deal, signed by Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Mayor Wayne Brown, which coincides with the freeing up of Eden Park planning rules.

The long-term partnership agreement between the government and Auckland is the first of its kind and will see the two parties work together on a range of key issues like economic growth, infrastructure and living standards.

This morning’s announcement also saw central government recognise Eden Park as the national stadium for the first time ever. 

“Eden Park is there, it's our national stadium [and] it has capacity for 50,000 people,” Infrastructure Minister Chris Bishop said.

“It's got a train station right next to it, which will have a huge amount of capacity growth on the back of City Rail Link, as well as a huge amount of capacity for urban growth around there as well.”

New planning rules for the venue mean the number of large concerts (30,000+ people) the stadium can now hold doubles to 12 per year. It will also be allowed to hold 20 medium-sized gigs with between 10,000 and 30,000 attendees. 

None of the concerts will require resource consent, and they will be able to run for up to eight hours and through to 11 pm, irrespective of the day of the week.

The changes also see one of the venue’s longest tenants depart. Auckland Cricket will relocate to Colin Maiden Park - a move that has been in the works for some time. The venue has been its home for well over a century, having taken over Eden Park’s running in 1910 before purchasing it outright two years later.

Chris Bishop says the relocation of Auckland Cricket is just one part of a long-term piece of work to unpick the very complicated arrangements around Eden Park, to make sure that it can “truly grow into the national stadium it can and should be.”