Horncastle Arena is a New Zealand sporting and entertainment arena located in the Christchurch suburb of Addington. It has gone through a series of name changes and was most recently known as the CBS Canterbury Arena.
Description
The arena is New Zealand's second-largest indoor arena with a maximum capacity of 8,888, it was the largest until the construction of Auckland's Vector Arena in 2007. The indoor stadium is capable of hosting concerts, exhibitions and various sporting events. Provision for international sport and traditional indoor arena events has been integrated into the design requirements. It has over 6,700 seats for sporting fixtures or, in the concert configuration, the seating can increase to over 7,000. 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. Horncastle Homes is the current naming rights partner to the arena.
History
Construction company Chas S Luney Ltd built the stadium. 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 86–81 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.
Since its opening, it has been host to a number of different sporting events. These Include home matches for the Canterbury Rams and Mainland Tactix teams. It occasionally hosts international basketball and netball fixtures featuring the Tall Blacks and Silver Ferns respectively. It was also the host of the 1999 Netball World Championships. It has also been host to a lot of non-regular sporting events. These include various celebrity tennis matches, ice shows, disabled games, karate championships and gymnastics competitions. In 2007 & 2008 the arena hosted WWEprofessional wrestling tours, featuring the SmackDown and ECW brands. The arena again hosted a WWE event in September 2017, this time a Raw branded event.
Other uses
The arena plays a key role in the Christchurch economy hosting annual trade shows including the Christchurch Home Show, Women's Lifestyle Expo, The Christchurch Boat Show, and the South Island gift Fare. The Horncastle Arena is managed by Vbase, the same venue management company that manages the Christchurch Town Hall, Christchurch Stadium 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.
Name change
On 18 June 2010, Westpac Arena was officially renamed CBS Canterbury Arena. On 23 July 2014, CBS Canterbury Arena was officially renamed Horncastle Arena.
