Horncastle Arena

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Horncastle Arena is a New Zealand sporting and entertainment arena located in the Christchurch suburb of Addington. It has gone through a series of name changes and was most recently known as the CBS Canterbury Arena.DescriptionThe arena is New Zealand's second-largest indoor arena with a maximum capacity of 8,888, it was the largest until the construction of Auckland's Vector Arena in 2007. The indoor stadium is capable of hosting concerts, exhibitions and various sporting events. Provision for international sport and traditional indoor arena events has been integrated into the design requirements.It has over 6,700 seats for sporting fixtures or, in the concert configuration, the seating can increase to over 7,000.The Sports and Entertainment complex is located adjacent to Addington Raceway and Rugby League Park in South West Christchurch surrounded by 3,000 car parking spaces. The complex is only 10 minutes from the city centre.It has been affectionately dubbed 'The Woolshed' by Canterbury Rams basketball fans. Some Christchurch citizens colloquially refer to the arena as the horseshoe, due to its unusual architectural exterior design.Horncastle Homes currently holds the naming rights to the stadium.HistoryCharles Luney was the builder for the stadium. The arena opened in September 1998 at a cost of NZ$32 Million. In the first ever sporting match at CBS Canterbury Arena, the Canterbury Rams basketball team suffered a close loss to the Wellington Saints 86–81 in April 1999.