Venues Ōtautahi has launched a major recruitment campaign to more than double its casual workforce ahead of the opening of One New Zealand Stadium in April 2026.

The Christchurch City Council-owned event and venue management company, which will manage the stadium, began its first round of recruitment earlier this month.

Venues Ōtautahi Chief Executive Caroline Harvie-Teare said the scale of upcoming events meant nearly 1000 casual event staff would be required when the stadium opens.

“It’s an exciting time for our organisation as we grow in preparation for One NZ Stadium. We currently employ about 450 casual staff to service events across our portfolio of venues: the Christchurch Town Hall, Wolfbrook Arena, Hagley Oval, the Air Force Museum of New Zealand and Apollo Projects Stadium. We plan to increase that to about 990 casual staff in time for the opening of One NZ Stadium.

“We are proud to be able to provide our community so many further employment opportunities and to continue to support local in everything we do.”

She said the casual workforce would be critical to the successful operation of the stadium.

“One NZ Stadium is going to be Aotearoa, New Zealand’s premier venue and with that comes a need for a premium level of service. Our casual workforce plays a vital role in that. They are the people who interact with our guests, who set the tone of your experience at our venues, so we are looking for a quality and skilled group to add to our diverse and inclusive workforce.”

“To assure we have the volume of staff needed, and we have the time to train and induct both our new members of the team so we are ready to hit the ground running when the venue opens it was critical we started this process early.”

The first round of recruitment for casual Event Services Attendants closes on 25 June. Additional recruitment rounds will follow in September 2025 and February 2026.

All casual staff will work across Venues Ōtautahi’s portfolio and perform tasks including table service, bar work, premium hospitality roles, ticket scanning, seating assistance, customer service, food preparation, event setup and barista coffee service.

Venues Ōtautahi General Manager People Rachel Hewett said their training programme would prepare new staff well.

“We don’t expect everyone to come in with all the skills and that is where our training programmes come in,” she said. “We employ a lot of young people. These roles are great to build confidence and provide a springboard into a thriving career in events.”

“The great thing about our wonderful portfolio of venues is we can train staff across our diverse portfolio of venues. When the Stadium nears completion, we’ll bring our casual staff into the venue for site familiarisation, so everything is seamless when we open the gates for the first event.”

Hewett said there was strong interest in the roles.

“The last recruitment we did in December-February, we had 460 applicants,” she said. “We shortlisted 140 top quality candidates from this pool but we could only employ 40 to 50. People are enthusiastic about being involved with Venues Ōtautahi and One New Zealand Stadium, so it is exciting to see.”

In addition to casual roles, Harvie-Teare said most of the permanent staffing structure was now in place, with more roles being advertised soon.

“It’s an exciting time of growth for our organisation,” she said. “Over the next 12 months we’ll be expanding our staff across the company with a scalable and future-proofed framework. This recruitment ensures we are best positioned to maximise the stadium’s potential and optimise our resources.”

“It has been great to see the quality of candidates who want to join the Venues Ōtautahi team and be part of our journey. These roles are providing great opportunities to Cantabrians to contribute positively to the social, cultural, and economic fabric of our community but also attracting many talented individuals who want to move to our great city.”

Recruitment for permanent roles will continue over the coming year across venue operations, management, culinary services, technical services and facilities. Opportunities will be listed at venuesotautahi.co.nz.