Olympic Park Stadium

Olympic Park Stadium
Holden Center Olympic Park The Graveyard
Olympic Park Stadium (2008)
Data
place	Olympic Boulevard Melbourne , Victoria 3000, Australia
Coordinates	37 ° 49 '28.7 "  S , 144 ° 58' 52.6"  E Coordinates: 37 ° 49 '28.7 "  S , 144 ° 58' 52.6"  E
owner	Melbourne Olympic Parks Trust
start of building	1954
opening	1956
Renovations	1998
demolition	Early 2012
surface	Natural grass
capacity	18,500 seats
Societies)
Melbourne Storm (Rugby League, 1998-2000, 2002-2009) Melbourne Victory (soccer, 2005-2006)
Events
1956 Summer Olympics ( football ) Junior World Cup 1981 Junior World Cup 1993

The Olympic Park Stadium was a rugby and football stadium with an athletics facility in the Australian city ​​of Melbourne . It was built for the Olympic football tournament and as a training facility for track and field athletes for the 1956 Summer Olympics in the immediate vicinity of what was then the Olympic Stadium, the Melbourne Cricket Ground . The facility offered 18,500 seats, 11,086 of which were seats. In the end, it was mainly used for athletics competitions and until 2009 it was also the home of the rugby league team Melbourne Storm .

Olympic Park Stadium was one of the largest rectangular stadiums in the state of Victoria , making it ideal for rugby and soccer . It was therefore better suited for these sports than the Etihad Stadium and Melbourne Cricket Ground. In 2007 construction began on the Melbourne Rectangular Stadium , which replaced the Olympic Park Stadium in 2010 with 31,000 seats.

The track around the playing field of the Olympic Park Stadium was last renewed in 1997. Every year the most important Australian athletics meeting, the Melbourne Track Classic , took place in the sports facility . The national Australian athletics championships were held a total of twelve times in the Olympic Park Stadium and a total of 13 world records were set.

The Olympic Park Stadium was the first and for a long time the only football stadium in Australia approved by FIFA for international matches. Important games of the Victorian Premier League and games of the World Cup qualification took place here. In 1981 and 1993 , the stadium was one of the venues for the Junior World Cup . Group games of the Olympic football tournament were held in the stadium as early as 1956 .

In addition to hosting several National Soccer League finals , some soccer clubs used the Olympic Park Stadium as their home ground ; including Melbourne Knights , South Melbourne FC and Heidelberg United . The A-League club Melbourne Victory also played their home games at the Olympic Park Stadium before moving to the larger Etihad Stadium.

In addition, various international rugby league games took place in the stadium and between 1998 and 2009 the Melbourne Storm team played their home games of the National Rugby League here. In 2010, however, this team also left the Olympic Park Stadium and moved to the new Melbourne Rectangular Stadium.

At the beginning of 2012, the Olympic Park Stadium was demolished and the Olympic Park Oval, which opened in 2013 and has 3,000 seats for Australian football, was built in the same place .

Web links

Commons : Olympic Park Stadium  - Collection of Images

• Melbourne & Olympic Parks (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Austadiums.com: Olympic Park Stadium
2. ^ Australian Athletics - Australian Open Track and Field Championships
3. ↑ Melbourne & Olympic Parks - Venues> Olympic Park ( Memento from August 29, 2007 in the Internet Archive )