Sport in Sydney
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Sport is a significant aspect of the Sydney lifestyle. Activities range from the occasional international event, annual competitions, competitive leagues and individual recreational pursuits. Sydney is the home of Australia's biggest sports league, the National Rugby League, hosting 8 teams, and the base for a number of teams in national competitions including the Sydney Sixers, Sydney Kings and Sydney Swans.
The Sydney City Council caters for sporting activities with a range of facilities. Across the city there are 20 public swimming pools, many kilometres of dedicated bikeways, ovals and other sports venues. Stadium Australia and the Sydney Cricket Ground, are two of the largest venues in the city.
Sports by Popularity
Rugby League
Rugby League is the most popular winter spectator sport in Sydney. The National Rugby League has eight teams based in the city as well as playing the NRL Grand Final in Sydney. The city was where the league was founded in 1908 as the New South Wales Rugby League, and the New South Wales rugby league team, which plays in the world's largest attended sporting competition, State of Origin, is based in Sydney. The average attendance ranges from 18,000 to 12,000 across the clubs in Sydney, whilst State of Origin and the Grand Final regularly attract 80,000 people.
Rugby Union
Rugby Union was the dominant winter sport from the 1870s until World War I, when the competition disbanded for four years while Rugby League continued and overtook the sport. The Shute Shield is the local competition which was the highest tier of football until the 1990s when the professional Super Rugby competition began. The New South Wales Waratahs are the state's Super Rugby franchise.
Stats and Teams
Rugby league is the most popular spectator sport in Sydney. In 2006, 565,898 people attended first class rugby league matches at Stadium Australia alone. Other popular spectator sports include Cricket, Football (soccer), Australian rules football, rugby union and basketball. The martial arts are also popular in Sydney, with the more traditional western combative disciplines and also because of the proximity to Asian countries where the arts are historically based. While participation rates are high it tends not to enjoy the profile of traditional Australia sports, though the olympic sports of boxing, judo and taekwondo are more well known. For the Asian arts there are many places to practice in Sydney.
Teams in national competitions
Venues
Venues in national competitions
Sydney Olympic Park
Sydney Olympic Park is roughly in the geographical centre of Sydney. Created for the 2000 Olympics, it is now a major sporting centre in the city.
Sydney Superdome
Sydney Superdome hosts miscellaneous events as Sydney's premier indoors facility. It has a maximum capacity of 21,000.
Stadium Australia
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cd/Sydney_olympic_stadium_track_and_field.jpg/220px-Sydney_olympic_stadium_track_and_field.jpg)
Stadium Australia, sponsored as ANZ Stadium, is Sydney's largest stadium. Built for the 2000 Olympics, it now hosts big events such as the NRL Grand Final, the rugby league State of Origin and rugby union and soccer internationals.
The venue is the home ground of NRL teams, the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs and the South Sydney Rabbitohs and serves as an occasional home ground for the Parramatta Eels. ANZ Stadium also hosts a number of Swans home games and the occasional domestic cricket one-day match.
Other facilities
There are various other sporting and recreational facilities in the centre including another indoor arena, tennis centre, aquatic centre, athletics centre, hockey centre, archery centre, as well as the Sydney Showground. In 2009 the area hosted a motor race in the form of the Sydney 500 motor race to be held on a street circuit within the former Olympic grounds.
Moore Park
Sydney Football Stadium
Sydney Football Stadium was designed for the use of rugby league and is now also used for rugby union and soccer. The Sydney Roosters, the NSW Waratahs and Sydney FC soccer team use it as their home ground. The Wests Tigers use the stadium part-time as a home ground. The ground hosted the 2005–06 A-League grand final won by Sydney FC. The ground also hosted rugby league grand finals from its construction until ANZ Stadium was opened.
Sydney Cricket Ground
The Sydney Cricket Ground is mainly used for cricket games and Aussie rules matches. It is home to the Sydney Swans and NSW Blues. The ground held over 1000 rugby league first-grade matches in its history but is rarely used anymore.[1]
See also
References
- ^ "Sydney Cricket & Sports Ground Trust - SCGT". nsw.gov.au. Retrieved 8 January 2017.