Western Sydney Stadium

The area on which the stadium is, was used for leisure and horse racing in the British colony at Parramatta, that was founded along with the harbour settlement of Sydney in 1788. Governor Charles FitzRoy approved the creation of a racecourse on the site in 1847, with a cricket field grown within the racetrack and opened in 1863.[4] After numerous name changes the local cricket club settled on the name Central Cumberland Cricket Club, and from there the site gained the Cumberland Oval name.

Cumberland Oval was used variously for horse racing, cricket, athletics, rugby union, rugby league and motor sports. When in use for motor sports the site was named the Parramatta Speedway, holding events from 1930 through to 1959. When the Parramatta District Rugby League Club were admitted into the NSWRL Premiership in 1947, Cumberland Oval became the club's home ground. In 1981 after Parramatta won their first-ever rugby league premiership supporters packed into the oval and proceeded to burn the grandstand to the ground, and shortly after a decision was made to build a modern stadium.[5]

The former Parramatta Stadium in 2012

Parramatta Stadium was designed in 1984, built in 1985 and opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 5 March 1986. The new rectangular stadium continued to host local, state and national sports events as well as concerts. It was converted into an all-seater stadium in 2002, with a reduced capacity of 21,000. In 2012, with the success of the newly formed Western Sydney Wanderers, which included hosting a sell out crowd for the 2014 AFC Champions League Final, and the ongoing desire of the Parramatta Eels to replace the nearly 30-year-old stadium, the NSW Government canvassed expansion options including an increase to capacity in the north and south ends with a second tier or a successive rebuild of all four sides. A minor redevelopment of the main stand was completed in early 2015. In September 2015 the decision was made for a knock down rebuild of the entire stadium.[6][7]

Parramatta Stadium's last A-League match was a semi-final between the Western Sydney Wanderers and Brisbane Roar where the Wanderers came from a 3–0 deficit to win the game 5–4 in extra time.[8] The Parramatta Eels hosted the final game of rugby league, defeating St George Illawarra 30–18, with Bevan French scoring three tries.[9]

Parramatta Memorial Swimming Club was also demolished to make way for the expanded stadium. It was replaced by the Parramatta Aquatic Centre, built on vacant Parramatta Park Trust space that hosted the 9-hole Parramatta Golf Course until the member funded club went into administration and closed in 2015.[10]

Exterior view

In September 2015, the New South Wales Government announced that the stadium would be replaced with a new 30,000-seat venue on the same site.[11] Expressions of interest were requested in June 2016, with four shortlisted to bid:[2] The four groups were Populous & Lendlease, Cox Architecture & John Holland, Hassell & Brookfield Multiplex and, lastly, BVN & Laing O'Rourke. The contract was awarded to the Populous and Lendlease consortium in December 2016, with Aurecon enlisted as enginneering consultants.[2][12]

As a requirement of the expanded footprint of the stadium, the adjacent Parramatta War Memorial Pool was also closed and demolished. A small group of protesters disagreed with the decision, gaining a measure of local media coverage to promote their anti-stadium online petitions. A replacement for the pool was announced in March 2017, with the NSW Government confirming that a new aquatic centre would be built on the old Parramatta Golf Course site.[13]

Safe standing area

The key features of the stadium are a 10,000 increase in capacity from the old stadium, a major increase in corporate facilities, steep grandstands, integrated pedestrian and transport links, local landscaping, a premium field-level members club and a high-quality public address system. The first major installation of modern safe standing in Australia is included in the design, with three bays totalling 1,000 capacity in the Red & Black Bloc active support area, using an interchange system that allows regular seating to be installed during the winter rugby code season before being swapped for the summer A-League season for the Wanderers.[14] It is also designed to have a LEED Gold Energy rating.[15][16]

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  North terrace
• 
  View from the main grandstand
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  View from the north-west corner
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  View from the north-east corner
• 
  Main grandstand

Demolition work on the old ground began in early 2017 and was completed in February 2017. Site cleanup, excavation and preparatory ground work finished in August. Construction started with concrete foundations being laid down in September 2017, with the main stand complete by mid-2018. The first roof section was assembled and lifted into place at the south end of the ground on 12 February 2018, and complete by late 2018. The structure as a whole was complete in early 2019, with the final internal and landscaping work being completed prior to the opening. The stadium officially opened on 14 April 2019.[17]

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  September 2017
• 
  September 2017
• 
  March 2018
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  May 2018 overview
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  May 2018 south-west corner
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  September 2018 Main Grandstand rear view
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  September 2018 North Terrace construction
• 
  September 2018 O'Connell Street entrance construction

Concourse

Main gate

The stadium's main purpose is hosting games for the three major football codes in New South Wales. The two major tenants are the Western Sydney Wanderers and the Parramatta Eels. The Wanderers host all A-League home matches, FFA Cup home games from the quarter-finals onwards and Asian Champions League games in the seasons they qualify. The Parramatta Eels host most of their NRL matches, including finals, at the stadium. The Wests Tigers and Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs also use the stadium as an alternative venue. These clubs, alongside the South Sydney Rabbitohs, confirmed they'd use the stadium as a temporary home ground from mid 2020 while Stadium Australia is redeveloped.[18][19] However, this redevelopment never occurred due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result of the Sydney Football Stadium redevelopment, the New South Wales Waratahs played 3 Super Rugby matches at the new stadium in their 2019 season.

The dimensions of the pitch meet international standards for soccer and both rugby codes. For rugby union the touch in-goal areas will be 10 metres, at the lower end of the acceptable range of 10 to 22 metres. The stadium is rated to host international matches across the sporting codes. The first rugby test match at the venue took place on 7 September 2019 with the Wallabies playing against Samoa in the lead up to their 2019 Rugby World Cup campaign.[20]

On 2 June 2019, Rugby Australia, the country's national governing body for union, announced that the stadium would become the new host of the country's stops in the men's World Rugby Sevens Series and World Rugby Women's Sevens Series from the 2019–20 season forward.[21]

On 31 August 2019, Football Federation Australia announced that the Australia women's national soccer team ("the Matildas") would play an international friendly match against Chile at the stadium on Saturday 9 November 2019.[22]

The stadium also hosts concerts, the first being Cold Chisel, the Hoodoo Gurus and Birds of Tokyo held on 24 January 2020. This was followed by the final stop of Elton John's Australian tour on 7 March 2020. The Western Grandstand is capable of event hosting on each of the four levels with a maximum single-room capacity of 700 in Level 1 function room.

Parramatta railway station is serviced by trains of the North Shore & Western Line, Cumberland Line and Blue Mountains Line. The Parramatta River ferry route begins at Circular Quay in the Sydney CBD and includes stops along the river such as Darling Harbour, Meadowbank and Sydney Olympic Park, terminating at the Parramatta ferry wharf. The Parramatta Light Rail will also service the new stadium via the Prince Alfred Square stop.[40] All are located in the Parramatta CBD within a one-kilometre, 15-minute walking distance to the stadium.

• Bankwest Stadium Website Archived 31 July 2021 at the Wayback Machine
• Infrastructure NSW Stadium Website
• Venues NSW Stadium Website