Endeavour Field

Endeavour Field, currently known as Ocean Protect Stadium under a naming rights agreement, is a rugby league stadium in the southern Sydney suburb of Woolooware, New South Wales, Australia. It is the home ground of the Cronulla Sharks Rugby League Club, which represents the Cronulla and Sutherland Shire areas in the National Rugby League competition. The Sharks are as of 2023 just one of two professional sporting clubs in Australia (excluding the Australian Football League's ownership of Docklands Stadium) that own and operate their home ground (alongside the Dolphins via their parent club Redcliffe who compete in the QRL with their home ground, Kayo Stadium) as well as Western United's future home ground Wyndham City Stadium. The Sharkies Leagues Club sits beside the stadium. History The stadium was built in 1966 and currently has a capacity of 20,000. The first match to be played at the ground came on the 30 June 1968 where Cronulla-Sutherland defeated Parramatta 10-7. In 1991 the original western grandstand was demolished and the new Endeavour Stand was built in its place for the 1992 season. The Cronulla-Sutherland Rugby League Club owns the stadium as well as the adjacent Leagues Club, one of only two NRL clubs to own its own stadium. State government authorities and local councils generally own sporting venues in Australia. On 21 April 2006 the Federal Government announced a A$9.6 million grant to the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks to upgrade the stadium. The upgrade included a new covered stand to seat over 1,500 spectators at the southern end. The new stand was completed in time for the 2008 season. Renovations were also planned for the ET Stand (originally the Endeavour Stand), named for Cronulla club legend Andrew Ettingshausen, and the Peter Burns Stand. As of June 2020 the Leagues Club was undergoing redevelopment, with the Leagues Club closing its operations on 15 December 2019, with the facility originally due to reopen in early 2022. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic impacting construction timelines at the Leagues Club site, the completion date has been delayed to early 2023, but Cronulla returned to playing home games at the stadium in 2022 with a temporary capacity of 12,000 in place until mid-2023. Further delays in construction resulted in a new completion date of mid-2024 announced in July 2023. Ground usage Rugby league In the NRL competition, the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks team has been playing at this venue since midway through the 1968 NSWRFL season, which was the club's second season into the competition (they had previously played at Sutherland Oval from 1967 until 1968). High turnout in crowd numbers are usual when Cronulla play local-derby rivals, the St. George Illawarra Dragons. The ground attendance record is 22,302, which was set when Cronulla took on St. George in May 2004. The biggest victory Cronulla has recorded at the ground came on the 21 August 2005 against rivals Manly where Cronulla won 68-6. In late 2017, the ground hosted the 2017 Women's Rugby League World Cup tournament. It played host to the group stages and semi-finals matches. During the 2019 NRL season, it was announced that the ground and the Cronulla leagues club would be undergoing renovations and as a result Cronulla revealed that for the next two years that they would be playing home matches away from their spiritual home with Kogarah Oval, WIN Stadium and the new Western Sydney Stadium as new temporary home grounds. In the early 2020s, Shark Park came under scrutiny by fans and the media due to the fact the venue hosted finals matches despite its limited capacity and alleged poor facilities. NRL CEO Andrew Abdo stated in September 2025 that the NRL would be reviewing their finals venue policy saying "We haven't changed or reviewed the home finals policy for a while, and I think we're due for that, In this particular case, you have two Sydney teams [on Saturday], and you want as many fans as possible enjoying it live. The players enjoy that, and so do the fans. We need to focus on our fans and the fan experience. There comes a time you need to consider a minimum standard, potentially for finals, that might be above the regular season – the time is right to have a good, close look at it". Soccer The Sydney Olympic FC club played at the ground for two seasons, from 2001 until 2003, in the former National Soccer League. Naming rights The ground has had numerous naming rights deals. Names of this ground over the years have been: Endeavour Field Ronson Field Caltex Field Shark Park Toyota Park Toyota Stadium Remondis Stadium Southern Cross Group Stadium PointsBet Stadium Ocean Protect Stadium Gallery See also List of sports venues with the name Toyota References