Colloquially known as the 'Cake Tin', Wellington Stadium last hosted the Warriors in Round 1 of 2023, attracting just 16,676 spectators to a 20-12 win over Newcastle Knights in what was their post-Covid homecoming after they spent the second half of 2022 playing both home and away in Australia.
This will be just the fourth ANZAC Day home game hosted in New Zealand by the Warriors, who recently broke with a 15-year tradition to play at Melbourne's AAMI Park on the evening of April 25.
With Hnry Stadium boasting a capacity of 34,500 spectators, the Warriors' upcoming ANZAC Day game is set to exceed the NRL record for biggest crowd in the nation's capital, which was a crowd of 30,112 for a May 2013 home game against the Bulldogs.
The Round 8 attendance is also set to slot into number four or potentially even number three for the biggest NRL crowd in New Zealand.
That belongs to Auckland's 50,000-capacity Eden Park, which hosted the Warriors' opening home games of the 2011 (38,405), 2012 (37,502) and 2013 (32,740) seasons.
“It’s incredibly exciting to see the Anzac Day clash for the One New Zealand Warriors against the Dolphins sell out a couple of weeks ahead of the game,” Hnry Stadium CEO Warrick Dent said.
“This is a significant match for the sporting calendar, on an important day for New Zealanders, so to have it resonate with fans here in Wellington speaks volumes about hosting events in our city.”
The Warriors are third on the NRL ladder after winning four of their opening six games, scoring more points (194) than anyone except the undefeated Panthers (206) despite a slate of high-profile injuries throughout the year such as half Luke Metcalf and centre Adam Pompey.
They host the Gold Coast Titans in Auckland on Saturday afternoon in the first of their back-to-back home games.