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Eden Park is New Zealand's largest stadium. Located in central Auckland, New Zealand's largest city, it is three kilometres southwest of the CBD, on the boundary between the suburbs of Mount Eden and Kingsland. Its rich sporting and social history and its international profile are unmatched by any other stadium in the country. Although used primarily for rugby union in winter and cricket in summer, it has hosted rugby league and football matches. In 2011 it hosted pool games, two quarter-finals, both semi-finals and the final of Rugby World Cup 2011. In doing so it became the first stadium in the world to host two Rugby World Cup Finals, having held the inaugural final in 1987.〔(EDEN PARK Auckland, New Zealand ) espn.co.uk. Retrieved on 30 Nov, 2015.〕 It was a venue for the 2015 Cricket World Cup, which was jointly hosted by Australia and New Zealand.〔 ==History== Eden Park has been a sports ground since 1900.〔 The park began as a cricket ground in 1903, and was due to the vision of one Harry Ryan, a cricket enthusiast who approached landowner John Walters to lease part of his land as a sports field. In the book Eden Park: A History, the authors write, "Certainly the rough paddock strewn with stones, studded with outcrops of rock and streaked with cowpats, falling away to a boggy trough that filled in a downpour and remained flooded throughout the winter, looked better suited to frog-hunting or duck-shooting than cricket, let alone rugby. Ryan knew or at least imagined better."〔(Eden Park: A History )〕 That bit of land was in fact located just up the road from Cabbage Tree Swamp, now Gribblehirst Park. Interestingly, those who saw Ryan's vision as madness most likely felt vindicated when, in 1907, massive downpours of rain saw the ground submerged in water for a week. The same thing happened again later in the year. Drainage problems were a scourge even as late as 1975〔(MetService Blog )〕 when severe rain before the one-off test between the All Blacks and Scotland saw the event close to being called off with the drainage system unable to cope with the flooding. In 1913 the park was leased to the Auckland Rugby Union so it became both a summer and winter sporting venue, and in 1921 hosted the first international event, a NZ v South Africa Test. The Western part of the ground was just open space until 1950 when a temporary stand was erected for the British Empire Games. In 1956 a permanent stand was built, but subsequently moved to North Harbour Stadium.〔(Heritage et AL: Eden Park )〕 The name ‘Eden Park’ settled into general usage around 1912, soon after it had been taken over by the Auckland Cricket Association (which was founded in 1883). Still the home of Auckland Cricket, Eden Park has hosted many international Tests, One Day International and Twenty/20 cricket matches. Rugby arrived in 1913 when, after negotiations with the Auckland Cricket Association, Auckland Rugby was granted a 21-year lease for games during the winter season. The first rugby test was held on 27 August 1921, when the Springboks beat the All Blacks 5–9 before a crowd of 40,000. The Auckland Rugby Football Union officially made Eden Park its home in 1925. In 1926 a Trust was set up to manage Eden Park primarily for the benefit of Auckland Cricket and Auckland Rugby. The Trust still manages the Park. Eden Park has hosted events over the years from the 1950 Empire Games, the Queen Mother’s visit in 1966, the infamous flour bombing test at the NZ v South Africa rugby game, to the Dalai Lama visit in 2002. And of course in more recent history, it has been the subject of the hotly debated dilemma leading up to the 2011 Rugby World Cup - should the event be hosted at historical Eden Park or a nice new waterfront stadium.〔 In 2013 the New Zealand Warriors announced they would be playing three home games at Eden Park in the 2014 NRL season.〔(Warriors to play three games at Eden Park ). ''3 News NZ''. 2 October 2013.〕 In 2015, it hosted four matches during the 2015 Cricket World Cup, which was co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand including the first semi final between New Zealand and South Africa.〔(ICC CRICKET WORLD CUP 2015 ) ESPNcricinfo.com. Retrieved on 29 Nov, 2015〕 1900-11 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Eden Park」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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