"The House of Pain" | |
Location | Dunedin, New Zealand |
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Coordinates | 45°53′37″S 170°29′26″E / 45.89361°S 170.49056°ECoordinates: 45°53′37″S 170°29′26″E / 45.89361°S 170.49056°E |
Owner | Carisbrook Ground Company |
Operator | Carisbrook Ground Company |
Capacity | 29,000 |
Surface | Grass |
Construction | |
Broke ground | 1881 |
Opened | 1883 |
Closed | 2011 |
Demolished | Starting 2013 |
Tenants | |
Otago Rugby Football Union Highlanders (Super 14) (1996–2011) |
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Ground information | |
End names | |
Railway End Hillside End |
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International information | |
First Test | 11–16 March 1955: New Zealand v England |
Last Test | 18–22 December 1998: New Zealand v India |
First ODI | 30 March 1974: New Zealand v Australia |
Last ODI | 25 February 2004: New Zealand v South Africa |
As of 8 January 2016 Source: ESPNcricinfo |
Carisbrook (sometimes incorrectly referred to as Carisbrook Stadium) was a major sporting venue in Dunedin, New Zealand. The city's main domestic and international rugby union venue, it was also used for other sports such as cricket, football, rugby league and . Carisbrook also hosted a Joe Cocker concert and frequently hosted pre-game concerts before rugby matches in the 1990s. In 2011 Carisbrook was closed, and was replaced by Forsyth Barr Stadium at University Plaza in North Dunedin.
Floodlit since the 1990s, it could cater for both day and night fixtures. Known locally simply as "The Brook", it has been branded with the name "The House of Pain", due to its reputation as a difficult venue for visiting teams.
Located at the foot of The Glen, a steep valley, the ground was flanked by the South Island Main Trunk Railway and the Hillside Railway Workshops, two miles southwest of Dunedin city centre in the suburb of Caversham. State Highway 1 also ran close to the northern perimeter of the ground.
Carisbrook was named after the estate of early colonial settler James Macandrew (itself named after a castle on the Isle of Wight). Developed during the 1870s, it was first used for international cricket in 1883, when Otago hosted a team from Tasmania. It hosted rugby union internationals since 1908 and full cricket internationals since 1955.
The stadium was home to both the Highlanders in Super Rugby and Otago in the ITM Cup through each side's respective 2011 season. It is also the former home of Otago cricket, which moved to the University Oval at Logan Park in the north of the city after the redevelopment in the early 2000s, and also of Otago United Football team in the New Zealand Football Championship, which moved to the lower-capacity Sunnyvale Park for the 2008–09 season.