Trusts Stadium Arena

Auckland is full of small-​medium size arenas which are sort of good for court sports, average for concerts, and rendered a bit pointless by big bad Vector Arena in town. I’d count Trusts Stadium as a part of this category. Of these mid-​size arenas, Trusts is the nicest simply because it’s the newest — it’s nice and clean inside while the North Shore’s old NSEC is a bit of a barn by comparison. It’s also got a good athletics facility and a big car park. In spite of these facilities, Trusts only has one major sporting tenant — the Northern Mystics netballers. It could probably do with more. In hindsight, letting the Breakers leave Trusts to go back to the North Shore a few years back was unfortunate for this arena given the crowds that team pulls now. Because of the relative lack of sporting tenants Trusts also tries to pitch itself as a concert venue, and unfortunately it’s just not that well geared up for gigs. In saying that, Crosby Stills and Nash here last year was pretty sweet!

Oh god where to begin. I don’t doubt this place is great for netball but it SUCKS badly as a music venue. I’ve had to come here twice; the first time was the all round disappointment that was The Cult but that was only a taster of how shit things could really get. The Cult had general admission standing room and allocated seating up the sides. Except when you got there it was actually a free for all so you got whatever seat you could find.
Then most recently I saw Blondie here who blew my mind and restored my faith that you can indeed be painfully achingly cool even 35 years on from your heydey. And for the haters who didn’t enjoy it; heard of irony?
For this gig the whole thing was seated and what this meant was cheap plastic chairs with numbers sellotaped on them (I kid you not) lined up in «rows» that people just moved out of the way. There was standing in the aisles, even some obnoxious child smoking and barely any security to speak of. Even without the smoking it would have been a fire hazard. OSH anyone?
The queue for the bar was ridiculous and the whole set-​up was a frickin debacle that should never be repeated. It gets better.
I received an email from Trusts Stadium the following week requesting feedback that included a shitload of questions on everything from the food to the toilets. I attacked it with fervent vigour, happy that I would get to tell them everything they were doing wrong. Ten minutes later I clicked on Submit… and nothing. I don’t know if it timed out, I don’t know if it went through and I’ve heard nothing from them since.
Please please please music promoters stop using this place for concerts!

This a great venue for sports like Netball, but a terrible place for concerts. Many people think it’s a good idea to have a decent sized venue for international bands out West, just how the shore has North Shore Stadium and the like, but honestly, I live (and love) West Auckland but having international, big, awesome bands out here is stupid. Firstly, Central Park Drive isn’t a great hot spot. There’s nothing there except Hangar and Hangar isn’t something to write home about. It’s a long drive and unless you live out west and can taxi home, the expense of getting back into town after a concert is far too high, so if you do come here, make sure you have a sober driver. There’s heaps of parking, so that’s good, but I’m not sure if you have to pay for it when there’s an event on.

We came here for the World Cup Final in 2011. I was perfectly content to chill out at home but my wife wanted to do something memorable as it was a big night. We got there early and the excitement of the crowd was tangible. The band The Black Seeds were playing beforehand and I must say they were really good. I had never heard of them but they played some marvellous music and it got everybody in the mood. As regards the game, we all know it was the stuff heart attacks are made of. Everybody thought at start that we would walk over the French but they were no pushover. The last few minutes, everybody was biting their nails but alas the All Blacks came out on top. We walked to the stadium that night but there are lots of parks if you ever take the car here. I am not really into rugby but I will never forget this fateful night.

I have been to Trust Stadium a couple of times to watch the LG Mystics play their home netball games. Located out in west Auckland, there are also other events held here. The venue can also be hired out for trade shows and expos, concerts and other sporting events. If you’re after a location to host an event go on to the Trust Stadium website and they have a link that takes you through the process of applying.
Here they have plenty of onsite parking (2000 plus car parks) and already established kiosks to buy food and snack before the event or at intermission.
To see what events are up and coming at Trust Stadium, hop on to their website and check it out. Tickets can be purchased online via their website.