Eden Park News
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Record crowd expected for Tottenham Hotspur v Auckland FC at Eden Park
Eden Park has provided the stage for many of New Zealand’s most significant sporting occasions, and this Sunday is expected to add another record to that history. More than 37,000 fans are expected for Tottenham Hotspur’s match against Auckland FC, setting the stage for the largest crowd ever recorded for a senior men’s football match…
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Where ‘Brand New Zealand’ comes to life
“Eden Park for an All Blacks game is peak New Zealand brand coming to life.” I came across this statement recently in a LinkedIn post, and it resonated with me. Saturday night brought together everything that makes an All Blacks test at Eden Park significant. A sold-out crowd of almost 50,000 fans filled the stands,…
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Welcoming the All Blacks back to The Fortress
There is a particular feeling that builds at Eden Park before an All Blacks match. You notice it in the days leading up to the game and, by the time the gates open, the anticipation is unmistakable. Then the bilingual national anthem begins, the haka echoes around a sold-out Eden Park, and The Fortress comes…
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Leading a place that belongs to everyone
Leading New Zealand’s national stadium has always felt like more than leading a venue. Eden Park is a stadium, but it is also a place of connection where people come together to experience sports matches, concerts, cultural and community events, functions and conferences, and leave with moments that stay with them long after they’ve gone.…
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Eden Park – a blank canvas for creativity
I was recently given a Blake Weston original artwork to mark my 10 years as CEO of Eden Park. Blake called the piece The Man Behind the Moments, which was a generous description, but what I appreciated most was not seeing myself in the artwork; it was seeing Eden Park through someone else’s eyes. His…
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Eden Park welcomes OCS as new facilities services partner
Eden Park is pleased to welcome OCS as its new facilities services and cleaning contractor. OCS is a global facilities services business with a strong presence across the UK, Europe, APAC and the Middle East. In New Zealand, OCS delivers sector-specific integrated facilities services across a range of environments, including venues and events, where the…
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Why premium brands align with trusted platforms
Watching the FIFA World Cup 2026™, it is impossible not to notice the premium global brands that sit alongside the tournament. Kia, Qatar Airways and Coca-Cola are not there by accident. They are FIFA partners aligning themselves with one of the few platforms capable of capturing attention at a truly global scale. But the strongest…
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Eden Park achieves internationally recognised health and safety certification
Eden Park is the first stadium in Australasia to achieve ISO 45001:2018 certification, an internationally recognised standard for occupational health and safety management systems. The certification recognises Eden Park’s commitment to providing a safe environment for employees, athletes, performers, partners, volunteers and the thousands of fans and guests who come through our national stadium’s gates…
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Why blockbuster events matter beyond the moment
One of the ideas we talked about during the Harvard Business School programme was the concept of the blockbuster: the event, product or experience that cuts through, captures attention and creates momentum around everything else. For audiences, stadiums and cities, this idea is increasingly important. A blockbuster event is not simply a large crowd, a…
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What Harvard reinforced about content, attention, and the future of stadiums
One of the biggest shifts we’re seeing in global sport and entertainment is that the event itself is no longer the whole product. A sports match, concert or major cultural event may be the reason people come through the gates, but the value of a venue is increasingly shaped by everything that sits around it:…
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BLACKCAPS take on India in two massive matches
The BLACKCAPS and India will play two blockbuster matches at Eden Park this year, with New Zealand Cricket confirming a T20 International will be played on Friday 30 October and a One Day International on Wednesday 4 November. Eden Park Chief Executive Officer, Nick Sautner, said the return of the BLACKCAPS for two games against…
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“Build it and they will come” is not a stadium strategy
The famous line from the 1989 film Field of Dreams: “If you build it, they will come”, might work beautifully as a movie idea; it’s definitely not a stadium strategy. In the real world, people do not go to a stadium just because the stadium exists. They go because there is a reason to be…