Build it and they will come...

Whilst Christchurch debates the size of the new stadium we thought we would present some historical facts around crowd sizes. The sell-out of All Black tests is almost a given, but the Christchurch stadium benefits from the success of the Crusaders and their loyal followers – a fact that remains very relevant. Pre-earthquake, the team hosted Super Rugby finals in 2005, 2006 and 2008. The 2005 and 2006 finals both produced capacity crowds of over 36,000 (the 2008 final was played in a depleted stadium whilst the new Deans Stand was being built). The average attendance throughout the 2005 Super Rugby season was over 29,000. Meanwhile, in provincial rugby, a special match was played between Canterbury and Wellington in 2010 after the first earthquake and, although entry was free, this match attracted a crowd of 30,500. Of course, most of these numbers are historic, but they provide the best measure of crowd demand, pre-earthquake. Capacity means sold-out, where ticket demand exceeds supply! As a benchmark, the Canterbury population growth between 2006 and the current population estimate of 646k is over 27%. We gave the Park the title of Field of Dreams, which is apt given the movie had an aspirational catchphrase..."Build it and they will come".