| Wolfbrook Arena | |
| City: | Christchurch |
| Country: | New Zealand |
| Location: | 55 Jack Hinton Drive Addington, Christchurch Canterbury, New Zealand |
| Coordinates: | -43.5458Β°N 172.6011Β°W |
| Opened: | 12 September 1998 |
| Owner: | Venues Εtautahi |
| Operator: | Venues Εtautahi |
| General Contractor: | Charles Luney |
| Former Names: | Westpac Trust Centre (1998β2007) Westpac Arena (2007β2010) CBS Canterbury Arena (2010β2014) Horncastle Arena (2014β2020) Christchurch Arena (2020β2023) |
| Address: | 55 Jack Hinton Drive Addington 8024 |
| Tenants: | Christchurch Sirens (WNBL) (2007) Canterbury Flames (National Bank Cup) (2002β2007) Canterbury Rams (NZNBL) (1999β2007) Mainland Tactix (ANZ Championship) (2008βpresent) New Zealand Breakers (NBL) (2003β2004) 1999 World Netball Championships |
| Seating Capacity: | Netball 7,200 |
Wolfbrook Arena is an indoor arena in Christchurch, New Zealand. It is located in the suburb of Addington. Opened in September 1998, it has gone through a series of name changes, most recently in 2023, when it was renamed from Christchurch Arena.
Wolfbrook Arena is New Zealand's second-largest indoor arena, with a maximum capacity of 9,000 (depending on event type); it was the largest until the construction of Auckland's Vector Arena in 2007. The indoor stadium hosts concerts, exhibitions and sporting events. Provision for international sport and traditional indoor arena events was integrated into the design requirements. It has over 6,700 seats for sporting fixtures, which can increase to over 7,000 for concerts.
The Sports and Entertainment complex is located adjacent to the Addington Raceway and Christchurch Stadium and is surrounded by 3,000 car parking spaces. The complex is only 10 minutes from the city centre.
It has been affectionately dubbed 'The Woolshed' by Canterbury Rams basketball fans. Some Christchurch citizens colloquially refer to the arena as the horseshoe, due to its unusual architectural exterior design.
Construction company Chas S Luney Ltd built the stadium.[1] The arena opened in September 1998 at a cost of NZ$32 million. In the first ever sporting match at CBS Canterbury Arena, the Canterbury Rams basketball team suffered a close loss to the Wellington Saints 86β81 in April 1999.
It was built for two main reasons: primarily for the 1999 Netball World Cup in Christchurch, and also because Christchurch was missing out on many concerts and other attractions because it did not have a suitable indoor arena in the city.
Westpac Arena, which had previously been named WestpacTrust Centre, was renamed CBS Canterbury Arena on 18 June 2010.[2] It was renamed Horncastle Arena on 23 July 2014,[3] then Christchurch Arena on 19 September 2020. It was renamed Wolfbrook Arena, after sponsor Wolfbrook Property Group, on 1 June 2023.[4]
| Entertainment events at Christchurch Arena | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| width=50 | Year | width=100 | Date | width=150 | Nationalities | width=200 | Artists | width=350 | Events |
| 1998 | 12 September | United States | Bob Dylan | Never Ending Tour 1998 | |||||
| 27 November | United States | Janet Jackson | The Velvet Rope Tour | ||||||
| 28 November | |||||||||
| 1999 | 14 August | United States | |||||||
| 2002 | 27 November | United States | Party Tour | ||||||
| 2003 | 18 February | United Kingdom | Cliff Richard | Wanted World Tour | |||||
| 19 February | |||||||||
| 2005 | 22 February | United States | |||||||
| 6 October | United States | Black Eyed Peas | Monkey Business Tour | ||||||
| 20 November | United States | Breakaway World Tour | |||||||
| 2007 | 3 July | United States | Chinese Democracy World Tour | ||||||
| 8 August | United States | Bob Dylan | Never Ending Tour 2007 | ||||||
| 15 September | United Kingdom | Snow Patrol | Eyes Open Tour | ||||||
| 16 October | Australia | Powderfinger Silverchair | Across the Great Divide Tour | ||||||
| 25 November | United Kingdom | Black Holes and Revelations Tour | |||||||
| 2008 | 7 May | Ireland | Westlife | Back Home Tour | |||||
| 12 September | United States | Disturbed | Indestructible Tour (Music as a Weapon) | ||||||
| 28 October | United States | Wonder Spring Summer World Tour 2008 | |||||||
| 2009 | 22 February | United Kingdom | Iron Maiden | Somewhere Back in Time World Tour | |||||
| 2010 | 16 February | United States | Faith No More | The Second Coming Tour | |||||
| 1 March | United Kingdom | Cliff Richard The Shadows | The Final Reunion Tour | ||||||
| 5 March | United States | Brand New Eyes World Tour | |||||||
| 8 April | United States | Carole King James Taylor | Troubadour Reunion Tour | ||||||
| 21 September | United States | Metallica The Sword | World Magnetic Tour (Metallica) Warp Riders Tour (The Sword) | ||||||
| 22 September | |||||||||
| 3 November | Canada | Leonard Cohen Tour 2008β2010 | |||||||
| 2011 | 10 February | United Kingdom | Sting β along with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. | Symphonicity Tour | |||||
| 10 May | United States | Disturbed | Asylum Tour | ||||||
| 20 November | New Zealand | Hayley Westenra | Paradiso 10th Anniversary Homecoming Tour | ||||||
| 2012 | 10 April | Australia | Reece Mastin | Australia and New Zealand Tour | |||||
| 19 August | United States | Slash | Apocalyptic Love World Tour | ||||||
| 6 November | United Kingdom | Mumford & Sons | |||||||
| 2013 | 20 February | United States | Note: This show was organised as a student-only event by the University of Canterbury Students' Association, it was originally planned to be held at the Ilam Gardens but the event has since been re-located to allow extra tickets to be sold. | ||||||
| 23 February | Australia | Reece Mastin | The Summer Nights Tour | ||||||
| 10 October | Ireland United Kingdom | Take Me Home Tour | |||||||
| 14 December | Canada | Old Ideas World Tour | |||||||
| 2014 | 20 March | United States | Lionel Richie | All the Hits, All Night Long[6] [7] | |||||
| 22 March | United States | Nine Inch Nails | Twenty Thirteen Tour | ||||||
| 10 September | United States | Never Ending Tour 2014[8] [9] | |||||||
| 2015 | 8 April | United Kingdom | x Tour[10] [11] [12] [13] [14] | ||||||
| 21 April | Puerto Rico | Ricky Martin | One World Tour[15] | ||||||
| 10 September | United States | Imagine Dragons | Smoke + Mirrors Tour[16] [17] [18] | ||||||
| 2 October | United States | Maroon V Tour[19] [20] | |||||||
| 2016 | 29 April | United Kingdom | The Book of Souls World Tour[21] [22] [23] | ||||||
| 28 July | Australia | Troye Sivan | Blue Neighbourhood Tour[24] [25] | ||||||
| 30 July | United States | Macklemore & Ryan Lewis | The Unruly Mess I've Made Tour[26] [27] [28] | ||||||
| 18 August (1 Show) | Disney on Ice | ||||||||
| 19 August (2 Shows) | |||||||||
| 20 August (3 Shows) | |||||||||
| 21 August (3 Shows) | |||||||||
| 29 September | United Kingdom | Delirium World Tour[31] [32] | |||||||
| 2018 | 24 April | United States | The Killers | Wonderful Wonderful World Tour[33] | |||||
| 2020 | 5 March | Norway | Hunting High and Low Live Tour[34] | ||||||
| 2022 | 25 November | United States | The Killers | Imploding the Mirage Tour | |||||
| 2024 | 23 October | United Kingdom | Thom Yorke | Everything (tour) | |||||
| 2026 | 13 February | New Zealand | Lorde | Ultrasound World Tour[35] | |||||
It has hosted a number of different sporting events, including home matches for the Canterbury Rams (basketball), New Zealand Breakers (basketball) and Mainland Tactix (netball) teams. It occasionally hosts international basketball and netball fixtures featuring the Tall Blacks and Silver Ferns respectively. It was the host of the 1999 Netball World Championships. It has hosted many non-regular sporting events, including various celebrity tennis matches, ice shows, disabled games, karate championships and gymnastics competitions.
In 2007 and 2008 the arena hosted WWE professional wrestling tours, featuring the SmackDown and ECW brands. It again hosted a WWE event in September 2017, this time a Raw branded event.
The arena plays a key role in the Christchurch economy, hosting annual trade shows, including the Christchurch Home Show, Women's Lifestyle Expo, Armageddon Expo, and the Go Green Expo.
Christchurch Arena is managed by Venues Otautahi, the venue management company that also manages the Christchurch Town Hall, Apollo Projects Stadium, Airforce Museum of New Zealand and Hagley Oval Pavilion. The combined facilities regularly host a variety of different events
The venue is also used for big gala dinners, lunches, balls, and cocktail parties.
