New Zealand’s largest stadium, Eden Park, has taken out the Business Award at this year’s Australasian Leisure Management (ALM) Awards.
The award, presented in Sydney on Thursday 24 August, recognises the stadium’s commercial partnerships, retail and merchandise activities and its success in maximising the venue’s assets.

Eden Park Chief Executive Guy Ngata says the stadium has had to adapt to the continuing evolution of the sports and entertainment landscape.

“The challenge for stadiums is to combat the consumption of sport and entertainment through non-traditional channels,” Mr Ngata says.

Eden Park’s brand has been repositioned to encourage and engage patrons by creating compelling live experiences in collaboration with its icon partners.
“Over the past 12 months, the Eden Park team has set a new benchmark for venue partnerships in New Zealand. The collaboration between our family of
partners and the Trust has enabled significant reinvestment into the assets of the Park for the benefit our legacy hirers and patrons alike,” Mr Ngata says.

“Establishing a robust and mutually beneficial relationship with our partners enabling them to showcase and leverage their brands has been paramount and
is something of which we are very proud.”

Eden Park’s hosting of three matches in the recent DHL Lions Series 2017 injected an estimated $26.7 million into Auckland’s economy and resulted in around
165,000 visitor nights for the city.

More than 1750 stadium guests take paid tours of the venue each year – 93% of them from overseas – and Eden Park, together with SKYCITY, was recently named
by Uber as the Auckland’s most popular passenger destination.

Open to any commercial business operation in the leisure industry, the ALM awards aim to identify leisure industry excellence among individuals,organisations, businesses and government in Australia and New Zealand.

The awards cover the widest definition of leisure: aquatics, attractions,entertainment, events, fitness, parks, recreation, sport, tourism and venue management.