Mt Smart Stadium is the home ground of the New Zealand Warriors. Located in the Auckland suburb of Penrose, the stadium is built in the remains of the Mt Smart volcanic crater, which is thankfully now extinct. One of the more picturesque grounds in the NRL, Mt Smart Stadium is key to the Warriors success as a club for years to come.
The Warriors would make Mt. Smart their home when they entered the competition in 1995. The then named Ericsson Stadium would prove a difficult road trip for other NRL teams, with the Warriors being the only NRL team based outside of Australia. To this day, it is an impressive achievement by an NRL club to cross the ditch and beat the New Zealand team on their home turf.
As well as being the home of the Warriors, Mt Smart Stadium has also regularly hosted Rugby League test matches since 1989. The largest crowd recorded for a rugby league match ironically didn’t even feature New Zealand, when 30,003 proud Tongans (and others) packed into Mt. Smart in a World cup semi-final match between England and Tonga in 2017, in which England won in controversial circumstances.
In a city and a country that is more committed to the pursuit of rugby union rather than rugby league, it is the Super 15 team the Blues that has bragging rights as Auckland’s most popular team. Exacerbated by poor performances on the field, crowd numbers at Mt. Smart have been poor in the last two seasons. The committed rugby league fans of Auckland will be hoping that their Warriors can light it up in the NRL, building off their historically good home record, and draw more supporters to Mt. Smart.
