Stadium Taranaki (Yarrow Stadium)

Stadium Taranaki is New Plymouth's main outdoor sports and entertainment stadium, on Maratahu Street in the suburb of Westown. It is owned by the Taranaki Regional Council, and its function spaces are marketed and booked through New Plymouth Event Venues alongside TSB Showplace, TSB Stadium and the Bowl of Brooklands.

Background

The site was first developed as a rugby ground in 1931, with the first stadium completed in 1947. Floodlight towers were added in 1998 to allow night events, a major redevelopment in 2002 added two new grandstands, and further work completed in 2010 raised capacity ahead of the 2011 Rugby World Cup, for which the ground hosted three pool matches. The Taranaki Rugby Football Union is the primary tenant, and the ground has also hosted Super Rugby fixtures.

The venue has been through a long redevelopment. The East Stand was assessed as earthquake prone in November 2017 and the West Stand in June 2018. In May 2019 the Taranaki Regional Council resolved to repair and refurbish both stands to meet earthquake regulations. The West Stand repair contract was awarded in December 2020 and that stand was the first completed, in 2023; the replacement East Stand opened in 2025. In February 2025 the long-standing naming rights sponsor, Yarrows the Bakers, announced it would not renew the agreement that had been in place since August 2002, and the ground reverted to the name Stadium Taranaki.

Spaces available

The venue publishes the following indoor function spaces and capacities:

• Corporate Lounge (Level 2) — theatre 400, banquet 350, cabaret/classroom 280, cocktail 400
• Concourse — theatre 400, banquet 350, cabaret/classroom 280, cocktail 400
• Hospitality Suite 1 — theatre 80, cocktail 80, banquet 60, classroom 48, boardroom 38; can be split into two separate spaces for 40 each
• Hospitality Suite 2 — theatre 80, cocktail 80, banquet 60, classroom 48, boardroom 38; also divisible into two spaces of 40
• Media Suite — theatre 40, banquet 25, boardroom 24

Outdoors, the stadium offers a hybrid main field plus three additional outer fields available for hire for sport and activity-based events. A virtual tour of the venue is published online.

Services

New Plymouth Event Venues lists technical, catering, ticketing and marketing services across its venues, including Stadium Taranaki, so audiovisual support and in-house catering can be arranged through the same team handling the booking. On-site car parking is available at the ground.

Suitability for meetings and events

Stadium Taranaki covers a useful span of the MICE market in one location. The Corporate Lounge and Concourse take conferences, gala dinners and cocktail functions of up to 400, the two hospitality suites handle mid-sized meetings, training days and breakouts (and split down to 40 when smaller rooms are needed), and the Media Suite works as a boardroom or offsite meeting space. Combined with the playing fields, the site also suits incentive and team-building programmes, sports events and product activations. As a recently redeveloped venue with modern finishes, on-site parking and one point of contact for AV, catering and ticketing, it is a practical anchor venue for a multi-day programme built across Taranaki venues.