page_title: Sydney Football Stadium
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: Sydney Football Stadium / History / Background
caption_attribution_description: English: View of the Sydney Sports Ground at Moore Park. The image is a composite of two (public domain) images by Sam Hood that were taken in 1937.
context_page_description: The Sydney Football Stadium, commercially known as Allianz Stadium and previously Aussie Stadium, was a football stadium in Moore Park, Sydney, 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.
  The Kangaroos, the Wallabies, and the Socceroos occasionally played at the stadium, while the 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 in October 2018, with the last event being a Michael Buble concert. Demolition began in early 2019, continuing after several legal challenges and becoming a major issue during the 2019 state election.
context_section_description: Prior to its construction, major events were usually held at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG), as it was the largest stadium in Sydney. But the SCG, being an oval field, was not considered ideal for sports requiring a rectangular field such as soccer, rugby league and rugby union, although it had been used many times for such events.
  Sydney Football Stadium was built upon the former Sydney Sports Ground in Moore Park, and the former SCG No 2 adjacent to the existing SCG. Both were owned by the Sydney Cricket Ground Trust. It officially opened by Premier Barrie Unsworth on 24 January 1988. The first sporting event was a rugby league match between the Eastern Suburbs Roosters and St George Dragons on 4 March 1988. Its seating capacity was 41,159, but after numerous expansions, today stands at 45,500, although the venue's official record attendance for a sporting event stands at 44,380, set on 22 September 2018 for the 2018 NRL Finals Series  when the Sydney Roosters played South Sydney Rabbitohs.
caption: Sydney Sports Ground in 1937
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