Olympic Park Stadium
Melbourne Storm ( rugby league ) (1998-2000, 2002-2009 ) Melbourne Victory ( football) (2005-2007)
Summer Olympic Games 1956 Junior World Cup 1981 Junior World Cup 1993
The Olympic Park Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in Melbourne, Australia. It was built as a training site of the athletes for the Olympic Summer Games 1956 in close proximity to the former Olympic Stadium, the Melbourne Cricket Ground. The stadium has a capacity of 18,500 seats, of which 11,000 seats are. Today it is mainly used for athletics competitions until 2009 it was also the venue of the home matches of Rugby League team Melbourne Storm.
The Olympic Park Stadium is one of the largest rectangular stadiums in the state of Victoria, which makes it ideal for the sports of rugby league, rugby union and football. It is thus better suited for these sports as the Etihad Stadium and Melbourne Cricket Ground. Since 2007, the Melbourne Rectangular Stadium is being built, which will in future replace with its greater capacity of 31,000 seats, the Olympic Park Stadium.
The playing field of the Olympic Park Stadium is surrounded by a carrier, which was renewed last time in 1997. Every year in the stadium the most important Australian athletics meeting, the Athletics Grand Prix Series, instead. A total of twelve times the national Australian Athletics Championships were held at Olympic Park Stadium and erected a total of 13 world records.
The Olympic Park Stadium was the first and for a long time also the only approved by FIFA for international matches football stadium in Australia. Here were important games of the Victorian Premier League and games instead of the World Cup qualifier. In the years 1981 and 1993, the stadium was each one of the venues for the Junior World Cup. Already in 1956 were held in the stadium of the Olympic Games group soccer tournament.
In addition to hosting several finals of the National Soccer League football clubs, some used the stadium as a home ground; including Melbourne Knights, South Melbourne FC and Heidelberg United. Also the A-League club Melbourne Victory wore its home games in the first Olympic Park Stadium, before he moved into larger Etihad Stadium.
In addition, the stadium various international Rugby League matches took place between 1998 and 2009 team Melbourne Storm was here its home games of the National Rugby League from. In 2010, however, this team will leave the Olympic Park Stadium and move into the new Melbourne Rectangular Stadium.