Canterbury Crusaders Still Without Stadium

August 9, 2011

New Zealand Rugby League side Canterbury Crusaders are still without a home ground for the second successive season as Christchurch city officials said the earthquake damaged stadium will remain closed in 2012.

The Crusaders, record seven-time winners of the southern hemisphere’s elite provincial rugby competition, were forced onto the road for the entire 2011 campaign after AMI Stadium was damaged in the Feb. 22 temblor that killed more than 180 people in New Zealand’s second-largest city.

The long term future of the 36,000 seater stadium has yet to be determined with the engineers expressing a need to demolish one stand. The council have yet to find a replacement stadium for the crusaders.

“At this stage we can confirm that the stadium will not be available for the 2012 season,” Wells said.

Re-leveling and other repairs are required on another stand, the council said, adding that work is under way to establish the best course of action regarding two stands that dropped as much as 40 centimeters (16 inches).

The scale of the re-leveling required has never been done before in New Zealand and is rare around the world, Wells added. One method of repair could involve driving piles down 25 meters to reach solid ground.

“Engineers are working now to determine the best method of repair and to establish the costs involved,” she added.