Dolphin Stadium (Brisbane)

Dolphin Stadium (also known as Kayo Stadium under naming rights) is a sports stadium in the suburb of Kippa-Ring in the City of Moreton Bay, north of the adjoining Brisbane metropolitan city, Queensland, Australia. Formerly known as Moreton Daily Stadium under a previous naming rights agreement, the stadium serves as the home ground for the Redcliffe Dolphins rugby league club in the Queensland Cup, A-League soccer club Brisbane Roar and NRL club, the Dolphins. 

The ground regularly hosts pre-season trials for the NRL, regular NRL games, and hosted the 2001, 2002, 2003, 2019, 2021 and 2022 Queensland Cup Grand Finals.

History

The creation of field, formerly known as Dolphin Oval, began when the Redcliffe City Council made re-claimed land available for sporting fields in the 1970s. The Redcliffe Dolphins, who at the time were based at the Redcliffe Showgrounds, showed immediate interest and applied for the maximum area available. Redcliffe City Council engineer Kevin Tibbets took to the construction of the ground with the utmost enthusiasm, with the football club even hosting a trip interstate for him to study playing arenas in New South Wales.

The transition from the Redcliffe Showgrounds to Dolphin Oval presented some major problems. Due to the isolation of the area at the time of construction, normal services were not readily available and therefore had to be brought in. Due to the gravity flow to Klingner Road, expensive sewerage pumps had to be brought in, power for the floodlights had to go underground to the main oval and the run-through tunnel was transhipped from Western Australia at a cost of $9,000, which was still cheaper than buying one from the Eastern states.

The lighting at the showgrounds was far superior, but the Redcliffe Rugby League Old Boys, led by Neil Okamura, contributed a $5,000 loan, which was later turned into a grant, for suitable floodlighting. They also constructed a perimeter playing fence around the main oval at a cost of $2,780. In return, the football club provided the Old Boys with a solid can-booth at the northern end of the complex and were granted the rights to sell liquor on a commission basis.

The pressure to build a licensed club at Dolphin Oval was met with a great deal of caution, especially when the existing club at the Showgrounds was still profitable. But within 12 months after the sod-turning ceremony, the new clubhouse was opened by the Mayor of Redcliffe, Ald. Alf Charlish. With the help of the Federal Member for Petrie, Dean Wells, and his Government's contribution through their C.E.P. Funding, along with the football club's own financial arrangements with the Commonwealth Bank, the move was made possible.

However the heavily publicised and enforced "Don't Drink and Drive" policy by the Government struck the thriving bar trade, and, according to From Shellgrit to Dolphins, a book on the History of the Redcliffe Dolphins, says: "Suffice to say the club only barely kept its doors open and its creditors at bay until the advent of poker machines in 1992, but proudly was able to meet its financial commitments".

In January 1979, the committee proposed to name the complex the Don McLennan Oval, but Mr McLennan requested that it be called Dolphin Oval.

Fittingly, the first game at Dolphin Oval was between Redcliffe and Norths, the club that originally proposed Redcliffe's admission into the BRL. The original lease was acquired to 1998 and later extended to 2008, before the Redcliffe Dolphins bought the land.

In June 2019, A-Leagues football club Brisbane Roar announced it would move three of its home matches in the 2019–20 season to the venue. The club's women's team has played high-profile home matches at the venue. In November 2019, Brisbane Roar played the first ever A-League Men game at the venue against Melbourne City, attracting a sell-out crowd of 9387. The Roar came from behind to win 4-3.

In October 2020, A-League Men side Brisbane Roar announced it would move its home matches for the 2020–21 season to the venue.

During the 2021 NRL season, all teams moved temporarily to Queensland due to COVID-19 outbreaks in Sydney and Melbourne. A round 20 match between Cronulla Sharks and Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles and a round 21 match between Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs and Wests Tigers, played on consecutive Sundays, were scheduled to be played at the stadium. However due to a snap lockdown, these were once again relocated to Suncorp Stadium. Subsequently, the stadium hosted its first NRL matches in round 22, when it hosted a double-header with New Zealand Warriors vs Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs, followed by Cronulla Sharks vs Newcastle Knights, on 15 August 2021.

In September 2021, the New Zealand Warriors confirmed that they'll use the stadium as a temporary home base for at least the first half of the 2022 NRL season due to uncertainties regarding quarantine free travel between Australia and New Zealand as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

On 10 April 2022, the stadium hosted 2021 NRLW Grand Final between the St George Illawarra Dragons and the Sydney Roosters, the first NRLW Grand Final to be held outside of Sydney.

Redevelopment and renaming
The ground was redeveloped between 2015 and 2018 following announcement of the programme in 2014. After securing funding from Moreton Bay Regional Council and the Federal Government funding phase 1 of the redeveloped ground, Moreton Daily Stadium was opened. The second phase of work completed in February 2018. The third stage was completed in September 2020 with a new Northern Grandstand being built. On 7 December 2022, it was announced that Moreton Daily Stadium will now be known as Kayo Stadium. Broadcast standard light towers were installed in 2023 and were first used in an NRL game between the Dolphins and St George Illawarra on May 25, 2023 at a cost of $3 million.

References

Sources 
 McLennan, Don, From Shellgrit to Dolphins: A History of the Redcliffe District Rugby League Football Club, 1995, Peninsula Printers.

External links
 
 Dolphin Oval at Rleague.com

Sports venues in Brisbane
Rugby league stadiums in Australia
Rugby union stadiums in Australia
Redcliffe Dolphins
1979 establishments in Australia
Sports venues completed in 1979
A-League Women stadiums
Buildings and structures in the City of Moreton Bay
Dolphins (NRL)