Colin Mansbridge: Crusaders CEO says One NZ at Te Kaha should become New Zealand's national stadium

Christchurch’s new One New Zealand Stadium at Te Kaha officially opened this weekend with a sold out match between the Crusaders and Waratahs on Friday night.

The All Blacks’ first test at the venue on July 4, and the Warriors’ first NRL match at the stadium in June both quickly sold out, while Robbie Williams and the Foo Fighters are set to perform in late 2026 / early 2027. 

Crusaders CEO Colin Mansbridge says the One New Zealand Stadium is ready to replace Eden Park as New Zealand's national stadium, despite being half the size.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:09):
You're listening to a podcast from News Talk zed B.
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Speaker 2 (00:16):
Watch out Eden Park, Tokaha and christ Church is new
and ready to go. The weekend sold out super Round
games were a roaring success. We all saw it as
such a success that the Crusader CEO Colin Mansbridge reckons
Tokaha is ready to take over Eden Park's Moniker as
New Zealand's national stadium. And yes, by the way, Eden
Park is the official national stadium of New Zealand as

(00:38):
of April the tenth, when the Resource Management Auckland Unitary
Plan Modification Act came into came into play. So Creusader's CEO,
Colin Mansbridge joins us. Now, good morning, dear Colin. What
a great weekend.

Speaker 3 (00:52):
How are you right?

Speaker 2 (00:53):
Very good, perfect, very good little stadium.

Speaker 3 (00:56):
It's awesome, isn't It's a brilliant, brilliant posey and and
I haven't heard anybody say bad weather there yet, so
here love it.

Speaker 2 (01:04):
It's very good, but it's very little. At the end
of the day, you're nearly half the size of Eden Park.
The All Blacks won't want to go there because they
won't make so much money because of the gate receipts.

Speaker 3 (01:15):
It's one of those things, isn't it. Which I mean
the fact that you can have a piece of legislation
that mentions Auckland and then we call it national. I mean,
come on, it's a national is about all of New Zealand.
This place here twenty five thousand over the weekend every day.
What we'll do for a Test match we could easily

(01:36):
do thirty thousand plus. What we'd do is we do
fan zones like we'd had down Riverside Market. Man, it
just went off. You don't need you don't need fifty
thousand in the stadium. You can you can build a
fan zone and just an area around it. Well it'll
be just as lucrative, he said Amadi.

Speaker 2 (01:55):
Yeah, well, Rugby and England has played at Twickenham because
it's the biggest stadium.

Speaker 3 (02:01):
It still doesn't make it the best stadium, doesn't. I mean,
bigger is not a.

Speaker 2 (02:04):
Way this is the okay, best is not necessarily biggest,
and biggest is not necessarily mean be so I get
that as well. But look, hey, look here's the thing.
I was really that the a league boss, the football
guy likes the base, and now there's talk of a
third New Zealand team at the competition based at Takaha.
Do you have you heard that? Is this real or
is this a gague idea?

Speaker 3 (02:23):
I suspect. I suspect. You know anybody who went in
there a second NRL franchise, You know anybody who's gone
in there that they would go, wow, this place. This
place is somewhere where we could attract people to watch
our sports. So it would not surprise me if they're
doing that work.

Speaker 2 (02:39):
Do you feel any sympathy for Forsyth Bar because that
was the premier stadium in the South Island. Now you
would claim that you are the premier stadium. It's a
there's the population base isn't great, you know, it's Forsyth
Bar is becoming increasingly redundant.

Speaker 3 (02:54):
It's the second beast stadium in the country. I mean,
so that's that's the point that the second BA. So
I watched the France played New Zealand there last year
and man, what an amazing atmosphere there is. So Donedan
can still turn it on. I think there's no doubt
about that. So we've got the best stadium in the

(03:15):
country in christ Church and the second best stadium in
the country in Toonedian.

Speaker 2 (03:19):
Yeah, but it's not the biggest. And there we go
Colin Mansbridge and once in South Island are always is
South Islander Loving it.

Speaker 1 (03:25):
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