A much maligned old friend is reborn as a field of dreams.
In a year with too few causes to celebrate, in a city that still feels a few chips short of a scoop, one beacon shone bright and long and radiant. In the perfunctory suburb of Penrose, postcode 1061, right between Onehunga and Mt Wellington, sits Go Media Stadium – Mount Smart. In 2024 it was consistently the most exciting place in Auckland to be.
If you were lucky enough to get a ticket to the Warriors, or to see Auckland FC, or Pearl Jam, you probably know what I mean. Those old stands – which had faded over time, grown unfashionable, subject in recent decades of grumble and disdain or, worse, pity – brimmed with energy. The south stands were loud. At the other end the grass bank seemed like it couldn’t stop grinning. At times it felt as thought the whole city was being lifted up from a rectangle of grass just above from the Māngere inlet.
The numbers tell the story. Tātaki Auckland Unlimited has today revealed that the total attendance at the stadium this year has tipped over half a million, with more than 520,000 flocking through the turnstiles to watch sport or music – and there’s still one Auckland FC game to go. TAU reckons that makes Go Media “one of, if not the, busiest stadiums in New Zealand”. That hesitation, presumably, is because Auckland’s bigger stadium, Eden Park, is still counting the stubs from Coldplay’s Big Bubble Bath and the rest.
What is beyond doubt is that Go Media won New Zealand’s Large Venue of the Year in the Event and Venues Association New Zealand Awards, a prize that is as deserved as it is new to most of us. “A sensational year for Go Media Stadium,” said TAU boss Nick Hill, one which had “rewritten the rulebook for what can be achieved”. And surely – surely – it is safe to say that this was Mt Smart stadium’s best attended year since it opened in 1967, the year New Zealand replaced pounds and pennies with dollars and cents.
The stadium has hosted some glorious events across six decades: international cricket in the late 70s, the Commonwealth Games opening ceremony in 1990, and the Big Day Out across 18 (mostly) resplendent years. But it’s hard to imagine any of those years topping half a million twists of the turnstiles. And in any case, the stats are only part of it. This year, you could feel the place fizzing.
The biggest bouquet goes to the Warriors. Having tended the old friend of Mt Smart through years of struggle and dilapidation, they breathed fresh life into the turf and the terraces. A sellout season saw a record-breaking 235,581 entries to 10 home games. The team might remain as mercurial as ever, but even in defeat there was a buzz around the place when I went this year. In their 30th season the Warrior experience is infectious – the Wahs could not be more up and next season most certainly is our year.
There were a handful of international league and football games, most notably the thrilling Tongan triumph over the Kiwis. There were the Foo Fighters and Pearl Jam, twice (those gigs alone generated $8.5m in spend by visitors to Auckland, 36,410 visitor nights in the city and a $4.9m contribution to regional GDP, says TAU). The place as a whole is beaming with a glow-up: a spectacular new mural sweeping beneath the East Stand; a second giant screen. Even the transport links seem, for the most part, sorted, and, according to my colleague Stewart, who lives down the road from the stadium and has in recent months become a zero-to-obsessive football fan, the one thing missing, a good pub within walking distance, is not far away.
And confirming the (no disrespect intended) phoenix-like revival of dear old Mt Smart is the arrival of Auckland FC. A head-spinning start in the A-League has returned six wins from six, four of those at home in Penrose before a combined 80,000 fans, and kept the blood pumping through the veins of the stadium through into the summer. Behind the goal at the south end, the Port rinse their vocal cords week after week, making a trampoline of the stand. Somewhere up in the stand, Mayor Wayne Brown is among the converts, returning to watch in his black and blue striped shirt.
“The atmosphere and fan experience at Go Media Stadium has been fantastic,” Nick Becker, Auckland FC CEO, told the Spinoff. “It has become a fortress for the team and the place they love playing at. We’ve got people coming from right across the city … It has been incredible to see just how the community has embraced the club. We’re humbled by it and feel like together we’re louder.”
Becker, who signed a deal for the club with the stadium up to 2028, wouldn’t be drawn on reports of new stadium plans being cooked up. “We have signed a multi-year deal with Go Media so for now the stadium remains our home,” he said. And right now, why would you want to go anywhere else? The place is electric. Arise, Go Media Mt Smart: Aucklander of the year.
