"The stadium has been the talking point for the last two years and the athletes are excited to be here," Masters Games manager Aaron Joy said.
In the past the headquarters for the games in Dunedin has been the University of Otago Student Union, but because of renovations to that building it was necessary to find a new base.
The four football finals will be played at the stadium and the reintroduced sport of leisure marching will also be held in the venue.
Other sports to be contested at the stadium are indoor rowing and weightlifting.
The stadium will also be the venue for the entertainment that will be held each night during the games.
The stadium has open areas and the strong easterly wind blew in when the Masters Games office was being set up there this week.
"We had to hire several containers to shut out the wind," Joy said.
The stadium will be used for the opening ceremony tonight that will feature the New Zealand Army Band. It will be led in by Kelly Taylor, from the Dunedin City Council, who is the volunteer co-ordinator.
The band will be followed by the parade of athletes who will file in behind their sports banners.
The Masters Games flame, which will be housed in the stadium, will be lit tonight. Joy was not prepared to divulge who would be given the honour of lighting the flame.
For Joy, the lighting of the torch symbolises the climax of almost two years of planning and promotion which began almost directly after the 2010 games. He has attended other masters events to promote the Dunedin event.
This will be Joy's fifth games in charge. He has announced his retirement, to take effect after this event, and will return to his home town of Christchurch.
Geoff Simons, the sports liaison officer, has come back for a second stint.
There are 100 volunteers assisting in the running of the games.
The 5664 New Zealand athletes will compete against those from 11 other countries, of which Australia has the biggest group with 202.
The other countries are Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, India, Malaysia, New Caledonia, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and United States.
A total of 6000 athletes have registered, just 404 short of the number that competed at the 2010 games in Dunedin.
There is a 50-50 split between males and females. Seven of the competitors are over the age of 85, with the oldest being 93-year-old Southland golfer Ivan Elder.
The first New Zealand Masters Games were held in Wanganui in 1989. Originally, the games were to be a two-yearly event held only in Wanganui. Dunedin entered a bid to host the games in the off-season, and since 1991 the games have been held every year, alternating between Wanganui in odd years and Dunedin in even years.
The Masters Games concept began with the World Masters Games in Toronto, Canada, in 1985, which attracted 8305 competitors from 61 countries. The World Masters Games in Sydney in 2009 had 30,000 competitors.
NZ Masters Games
Dunedin
Headquarters: Forsyth Barr Stadium.
Dates: February 4-12.
Number of sports: 70.
Number of countries: 12.
Number of competitors at Masters Games in Dunedin: 2002 (8120, record), '04 (7000), '06 (7205), '08 (7069), '10 (6404), '12 (6000).
