Warriors fans sideline seats at Ericsson Stadium

Warriors fans line up for sideline seats at Ericsson Stadium

Most of the 3000 sideline seats in Ericsson Stadium’s new East Stand have been snapped up by excited Warriors fans even though they are not even installed yet.

The sideline seats, which make up the first stage of the new East Stand, will be ready for the Vodafone Warriors first home game of the season and most if not all will be occupied for the game.

While the players get stuck into their pre-season training, Mainzeal Construction is using the largest capacity construction tower crane in New Zealand for the latest stage in the construction of the Vodafone Warriors’ new home base.

The crane has been imported from Germany and stands almost 40 metres high with a maximum capacity of 20 tonnes.

ARC Parks and Heritage Committee Chairman Bill Burrill says the first stage of the new East Stand will be completed within budget and in time for the Warriors first home game on March 20 as promised.

“The project is progressing extremely well and will be a great facility for Vodafone Warriors fans,” he says.

The fans are already showing their enthusiasm for the new stand if season ticket sales are anything to go by.

"The response of season ticket holders to Stage 1 of the re-development has been overwhelming with 2004 ticket pre-sales already accounting for over 70% of the capacity of the stand and continuing to sell strongly,” Vodafone Warriors' General Manager, Spiro Tsiros says.

“The positive response of our fans to the first stage of the new stand gives us great confidence that stage two and the completion of the re-development for the 2005 season will be a huge success.

Providing the best possible environment for our fans to come along and watch the Vodafone Warriors play was the over-riding objective behind this project, and with the excellent reaction that we have had to this first stage, everything is on track for this objective to be achieved."

The East Stand has become known as the “Stand of two halves” because it is being built in two stages. The second stage, to be completed in time for the Vodafone Warriors’ 2005 season, includes the team’s new headquarters and sports science centre, covered seating, corporate suites, hospitality lounges and many more facilities for fans.

Chair Gwen Bull says the completed East Stand will enhance the stadium’s status as a leading sports and entertainment venue in New Zealand.

“The stadium already runs at a surplus and the addition of the new stand will make it even more of an asset to the communities and the ratepayers of Auckland,” Cr Bull says.

In addition to stage one of the new East Stand, this season there will be more than 2000 extra seats available in the stadium’s North Stand, adding to the stadium’s all round atmosphere.

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