Lancaster Park

ROCKHAPPENZ Public Collection

Lancaster Park  —  a view from the air in days gone by ....

Lancaster Park became Jade Stadium in 1998 and AMI Stadium in 2007, for sponsorship reasons.  It was a sports stadium in Waltham, a suburb of Christchurch.  The stadium closed permanently due to damage sustained in the February 2011 earthquake and was eventually demolished in 2019.  It has since been transformed into a public recreational park with facilities for community sport, and was re-opened as such in June 2022 by the then Mayor, Lianne Dalziel.

Originally named after Benjamin Lancaster
... renamed as Jade Stadium in 1998

... renamed as AMI Stadium in 2007
seen here in 2011 after sustaining earthquake damage ...

... demolition, as a result of the irrecoverable damage from
the disasterous 2011 Christchurch earthquake

The stadium was the venue for various sports including rugby union, cricket, rugby league, association football, athletics and trotting.  It is perhaps best known for being the track where Peter Snell broke the world record for the 800 meters and the 880 yards in a single race in 1962.  It had also hosted various non-sporting events including concerts.  The stadium was however, primarily a rugby and cricket ground and was the home of the Canterbury Crusaders Super Rugby Union Team, and the Canterbury Cricket Team. Its capacity was 38,628.

Alongside the incredible array of sporting memories over 130 years there was a halcyon period when huge music concerts came to town.  Over a 25-year period from the mid-1980's Lancaster Park attracted some of the world's best musicians and attracted capacity crowds to revel in thunderous pop music.  There was Billy Joel on his Encore Tour in 1987.  U2 attracted record crowds during their Lovetown and Zoo TV tours in 1989 and 1993.  Tina Turner also visited twice during the 1990’s, with her What’s Love tour in 1993 and Wildest Dreams tour in 1997.  The biggest crowd on record was probably the 64,000 fans who saw Dire Straits play in 1986 during their Brothers In Arms tour.  Dire Straits returned in 1991 with their On Every Street tour.  And in the latter years there were significant turns-out for Meat Loaf in 2004, Roger Waters in 2007, Bon Jovi in 2008 and Pearl Jam in 2009.  But February 22, 2011 was the day the music died.

An aerial view of Lancaster Park in it's then present guise as AMI Stadium - shortly before the earthquakes .....