Cooks Gardens

Cooks Gardens
Location Hill Street, Wanganui, New Zealand
Operator Cooks Gardens Trust Board
Capacity 21,000
Surface Grass field, synthetic athletics track
Opened 1896
Tenants
Wanganui Rugby Football Union,
Athletics Wanganui, Cycling Wanganui

Cooks Gardens is a multi-purpose stadium in Wanganui, New Zealand. It is currently used mostly for rugby union matches, athletics and cycling. The main stadium, known as Westpac Stadium, is able to hold 20,700 people with 3,500 covered seats.

History

Cooks Gardens use as a sporting facility commenced in 1896. Since then Cooks Gardens has been the venue of a number of the world’s historic sporting occasions. One of these occasions was on 27 January 1962 when tens of thousands of spectators crammed into Cooks Gardens to witness athlete Peter Snell break the world record for the mile.[1]

In 1996 a multimillion-dollar re-development of Cooks Gardens took place. This included an all-weather synthetic 400m athletic track, the first wooden cycling velodrome in New Zealand, and a new grandstand.

Redevelopment of Cooks Gardens was completed in 2004 with the construction of two further grandstands

Features

  • Westpac Stadium is the hub of Cooks Gardens and contains the playing field and athletics track and has a capacity of 20,700 with 3,500 covered seats in the grandstands. The stadium hosts all Wanganui Heartland Championship rugby matches as well as hosting several other International rugby matches. Many National and International athletic meets are held at Cooks Gardens as well as Professional Rugby league matches featuring NRL sides and top level soccer games are also hosted.
  • The Velodrome contains a 250m wooden track and has hosted several International cycling meets.
  • The Function Centre is situated within Westpac Stadium and contains a bar and kitchen facilities.

Notable people

References

  1. ↑ Chapman, Grant (22 January 2012). "Athletics: Run of a lifetime 50 years on". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 13 November 2012.

Coordinates: 39°56′03″S 175°02′57″E / 39.9341°S 175.0493°E / -39.9341; 175.0493


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