Location Oamaru, New Zealand Capacity 70,024 | Surface Grass | |
Address Oamaru North, Oamaru 9400, New Zealand Similar Alpine Energy Stadium, Owen Delany Park, Cooks Gardens, Rugby Park Stadium, Carisbrook | ||
Centennial Park (known for sponsorship purposes as: Whitestone Contracting Stadium) is a sports facility which is located on Taward Street in Oamaru. The main sports that are played at Centennial Park are rugby union, cricket and hockey.
It is the home ground for the Heartland Championship team North Otago. It has hosted NPC finals and semi-finals. One of the more notable finals was in 2002, when North Otago finished their successful season by winning 43-19. The last final held at Centennial Park was the 2007 Heartland Championship Meads Cup against Wanganui, with North Otago winning.
Centennial Park is also one of the home grounds for Super Rugby franchise, the Highlanders, although most of the matches are only pre-season matches.
The other major sport played at the venue is cricket. It is one of the home venues of the Otago Volts.
The stadium also hosts international hockey matches, and is a venue for the national team, the Black Sticks.
In 2007 the main ground was renamed Whitestone Contracting Stadium, after naming rights were granted to Whitestone Contracting Limited.
In 2011 Whitestone Contracting stadium hosted the Rugby World Cup final between New Zealand and France, which New Zealand won due to a match winning intercept try in the final minute to fly-half Hayden (Quasi) Parker.
In 2012 Whitestone Contracting stadium hosted the ITM cup premiership final between North Otago and Canterbury. North Otago won the match 87-3, however due to financial pressure the team was demoted to the heartland championship the following year, ending their 10 year supremacy of the ITM cup premiership.
In October 2014, 24 extra seats were installed in preparation for the Heartland Championship Lochore cup final.