Sydney Football Stadium (1988)
The Sydney Football Stadium, commercially known as Allianz Stadium and previously Aussie Stadium, was a football stadium in the Moore Park suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Built in 1988 next to the Sydney Cricket Ground, the stadium was Sydney's premier rectangular field venue for rugby league, rugby union and football.
This article is about the demolished stadium. For the stadium on the same site that opened on 28 August 2022, see Sydney Football Stadium (2022).Address
Driver Avenue
Moore Park
Australia
Sydney Cricket Ground Trust
65
- 45,500 (venue capacity)
- 44,000 (seated capacity)
44,380 – Sydney Roosters vs South Sydney Rabbitohs, 22 September 2018
140 metres × 79 metres
Grass
Yes
Yes
1986
24 January 1988
5 October 2018
18 December 2019
$68 million
Philip Cox
Richardson & Taylor
Australia's national football teams, the Kangaroos, the Wallabies, and the Socceroos occasionally played at the stadium, while the Eastern Suburbs/Sydney City/Sydney Roosters, NSW Waratahs, and Sydney FC were the ground's major tenants. The stadium usually held both National Rugby League semi finals and one preliminary final, and also held the annual pre-season Charity Shield football match between South Sydney and St George Illawarra for a number of years. It hosted all New South Wales Rugby League/Australian Rugby League rugby league grand finals, as well as the first grand final under the NRL banner, between 1988 and 1998.
The NSW Government announced plans in November 2017 for the stadium to be demolished and rebuilt. The stadium closed on 5 October 2018, with the last event being a Michael Bublé concert. Demolition began in early 2019, continuing after several legal challenges and becoming a major issue during the 2019 state election. It was ultimately replaced by the stadium of the same name opening on 28 August 2022.
Transport[edit]
Sydney Football Stadium could be accessed by car, public transport and by walking. The nearest railway station was Central station, three kilometres away. On event days, express shuttle buses ran every five minutes from Chalmers Street at Central station to Moore Park. The buses utilised a bus road off Anzac Parade to improve travel times. In 2015, the Albert Cotter Bridge opened across Anzac Parade opened to improve the pedestrian links between the stadium and Central station and Surry Hills.[19]