Eden Park News: Perspectives

While we all know how to describe the infrastructure that makes a city work – roads move people, rail connects communities and airports connect us with the world, it can be harder to define what makes a city feel alive. Parks, theatres, galleries, museums and public spaces all play an essential role. They give us…

When people hear “built for the world stage”, they probably picture exactly what the image shows – a full stadium, a huge production, lights, screens, an international sports match or one of the world’s biggest artists performing in front of tens of thousands of people. But that is really only the final product. What makes…

On 16 June 2027 State of Origin is coming to Auckland, but do we really understand what is about to arrive? I ask that question having delivered and attended multiple State of Origin fixtures during my career in Australia and having been at Suncorp Stadium for Game III this year alongside 52,452 Queensland and New…

I have an office at Eden Park and a laptop sitting on my desk, but the reality is that I spend a large part of my working day somewhere else in the stadium. When your workplace stretches across 50,000 seats, technology becomes an important part of staying connected to the people, information and decisions that…

“It’s on in Auckland.” This was the theme Annie Dundas from Tātaki Auckland Unlimited discussed at an event I attended this morning as part of the New Zealand Events Association conference. It is a simple phrase, but for me, it captures something important. People want to live in a city where things are happening, a…

And why I’m calling for the establishment of a long-term, cross-party approach to attracting internationally signficant events to New Zealand 40,112 football fans came through our gates on Sunday to watch Tottenham Hotspur play Auckland FC, setting a new attendance record for a senior men’s football match in New Zealand. While this is a significant…

“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,…

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…

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.…

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…

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…

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…