Address | Neild Ave |
---|---|
Location | Rushcutters Bay |
Coordinates | 33°52′37″S151°13′49″E / 33.876978°S 151.230274°E |
Owner | Stadiums Limited |
Type | Stadium |
Genre(s) | music, concerts, sporting events |
Capacity | 15,000 |
Construction | |
Architect | In 1912 an indoor facility was built to a design by T.P. Sampson |
The Sydney Stadium was a sporting and entertainment venue in Sydney, New South Wales, which formerly stood on the corner of New South Head Road and Neild Avenue, Rushcutters Bay. Built in 1908, it was demolished in 1970 to make way for the construction of the Eastern Suburbs Railway.
Sydney Stadium was built in 1908 on the site of a former Chinese market garden that was leased by boxing promoter Hugh Donald Macintosh as a venue for sporting events. [1]
Macintosh originally built a temporary open-air stadium to promote a World heavyweight boxing championship title fight between Canadian world heavyweight champion Tommy Burns and Australian champion Bill "Boshter" Squires on 24 August 1908, which Burns won by a knockout in the 13th Round. [1] It also hosted the biggest sporting event in Australia's history up till then, where over 20,000 crammed in the stadium on 26 December 1908 to see Tommy Burns fight the African-American Jack Johnson. This fight captivated the world because it was the first time that a 'black' man fought for the prestigious World Heavyweight Boxing Championship, with Johnson winning to take the title. [2]
In 1912 an octagonal structure, with a roof, was built to a design by Thomas Pollard Sampson. [3] The new venue had raked wooden seats facing the central stage and could accommodate as many as 12,000 people. [2] It was mainly used as a venue for boxing matches until the mid-1900s.
From 1954 onwards and through the 1960s, the stadium was frequently used to host concerts by visiting overseas performers – notably the groundbreaking "The Big Show" package tours promoted by expatriate American entrepreneur Lee Gordon – as it was the only large-capacity indoor venue in Sydney at that time. It colloquially became known by performers as "The Old Tin Shed" and was so big that American star Bob Hope purportedly said it was "like Texas with a roof on it". [4]
The stadium hosted many major Australian, New Zealand, British and United States stars.
Sydney Stadium was demolished in 1970 to make way for the construction of the Eastern Suburbs Railway. [5] The location of the former site is commemorated by a plaque at the edge of the Weigall sporting field, the sports fields of Sydney Grammar and the Sydney Grammar Edgecliff Preparatory School. [6]
The Museum of Sydney held a major exhibition about the history of the Sydney Stadium. The exhibition started on 22 September 2012 and finished on 10 March 2013. It looked at the origins of the Stadium as well as the fights, performers, wrestling, fans and Roller derby among other topics. [4]
Tommy Burns was a Canadian professional boxer. He is the only Canadian-born World Heavyweight Boxing Champion. The first to travel the globe in defending his title, Burns made 13 title defences against 11 different boxers, despite often being the underdog due to his size. Burns took on all challengers as Heavyweight Champion, leading to his legendary bout with the African American Jack Johnson. According to his biographer, Burns insisted, "I will defend my title against all comers, none barred. By this I mean white, black, Mexican, Indian, or any other nationality. I propose to be the champion of the world, not the white, or the Canadian, or the American. If I am not the best man in the heavyweight division, I don't want the title."
Stadium Australia, currently known as Accor Stadium for sponsorship purposes, is a multi-purpose stadium located in the Sydney Olympic Park, in Sydney, Australia. The stadium, which in Australia is sometimes referred to as Sydney Olympic Stadium, Homebush Stadium or simply the Olympic Stadium, was completed in March 1999 at a cost of A$690 million to host the 2000 Summer Olympics. The Stadium was leased by a private company, the Stadium Australia Group, until the Stadium was sold back to the NSW Government on 1 June 2016 after NSW Premier Michael Baird announced the Stadium was to be redeveloped as a world-class rectangular stadium. The Stadium is owned by Venues NSW on behalf of the NSW Government.
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 soccer.
Dave Sands was an Indigenous Australian boxer.
Newcastle Entertainment Centre is a multi-purpose Australian arena within the Newcastle Showgrounds. It was opened in 1992 at a cost of A$12 million.
The Melbourne Sports and Entertainment Precinct is a series of sports stadiums and venues, located in Melbourne, Victoria, in Australia. The precinct is situated around 3 km east of the Melbourne city centre, located in suburbs of Melbourne and Jolimont, near East Melbourne and Richmond.
Sydney Entertainment Centre was a multi-purpose arena located in Haymarket, Sydney, Australia. It opened in May 1983, to replace Sydney Stadium, which had been demolished in 1970 to make way for the Eastern Suburbs railway line. The centre was owned by the Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority, which administered the neighbouring Darling Harbour area, and managed under a lease.
Edgecliff is a small suburb in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Edgecliff is located 4 kilometres east of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the Municipality of Woollahra. The postcode is 2027.
Rushcutters Bay is a harbourside eastern suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia 3 kilometres east of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Sydney.
The Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre was a convention, exhibition and entertainment complex in Darling Harbour, Sydney. Designed by Philip Cox, the complex opened in 1988 as part of an urban renewal and redevelopment of the Darling Harbour area during the period. The complex was eventually demolished in 2013 to make way for the International Convention Centre.
For the 2000 Summer Olympics, a total of thirty sports venues were used. After Melbourne hosted the 1956 Summer Olympics, Australia made several bids for the Summer Olympics before finally winning the 2000 Summer Olympics by two votes over Beijing, China. Venue construction was set at the Homebush Bay area of Sydney in an effort to rehabilitate the land. Environmental studies of the area in the early 1990s forced remediation to be used for about a fifth of the site selected. Fifteen new venues were constructed for the Games. Many of the venues used for the 2000 Games continue to be in use as of 2020, although some of the pre-existing facilities have been demolished and replaced.
Bill Lang was an Australian professional boxer who held the national heavyweight title. He was also an Australian rules footballer who played with Richmond in the Victorian Football League (VFL).
Hugh Donald "Huge Deal" McIntosh was an Australian theatrical entrepreneur, sporting promoter and newspaper proprietor
The sport of boxing has been practised in Canada since before Canadian Confederation in 1867. Boxing was illegal in Canada during the bare-knuckle era but fights took place in remote areas and the last of them was in Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1901.
Pat O'Keeffe, was a professional English boxer who became the British champion in both the welterweight and middleweight weight classes. His professional career spanned the years between 1902 and 1918. In 1914 he made an unsuccessful bid for the European heavyweight belt, losing to Georges Carpentier. Between 1907 and 1910 he left Britain and continued his boxing career in the United States, and then Australia. On the outbreak of World War I he joined the British Army to work as a Physical Training Instructor (PTI) and Recruiting Sergeant for the 1st Surrey Rifles. He won the Lonsdale Belt outright when he defeated Bandsman Blake at the National Sporting Club (N.S.C) on 28 January 1918, becoming British Middleweight Champion.
Laurence 'Larry' Foley was an Australian middleweight boxer. An exceptional boxing instructor, his students included American champions Peter Jackson, and Tommy Burns, the incomparable English-born triple weight class champion Bob Fitzsimmons and Australian champion Mike Dooley. Due to his success as a boxing champion and internationally acclaimed instructor, and for introducing his country to the modern Queensberry Rules, he is often referred to as the "Father of Australian Boxing".
Western Sydney Stadium, commercially known as CommBank Stadium, is a multi-purpose rectangular stadium located in Parramatta, within Greater Western Sydney region, approximately 24 km (15 mi) west of Sydney City Centre. It replaced the demolished Parramatta Stadium (1986) which in turn was built on the site of the old Cumberland Oval, home ground to the Parramatta Eels since 1947. The current stadium opened in April 2019 and has a 30,000 seat capacity. The stadium is owned by the NSW Government, operated by VenuesLive, designed by Populous Architects, engineered by Aurecon and built by Lendlease with a build cost of $300 million. The stadium hosts games across the major rectangular field sports in Sydney.
The Burns-Johnson Fight is a 1908 documentary film of the boxing fight between Tommy Burns and Jack Johnson at Sydney Stadium, Rushcutters Bay, on 26 December 1908 for the World Heavyweight Championship title, which Johnson won. It was produced by Charles Cozens Spencer at the behest of the fight's promoter Hugh D. McIntosh.
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 16 teams, and the base for a number of teams in national competitions including the Sydney Roosters, Canterbury Bulldogs and Penrith Panthers.
The Rushcutters Bay Sewage Pumping Station is a heritage-listed sewerage pumping station located at Rushcutters Bay Park in the inner city Sydney suburb of Rushcutters Bay in the City of Sydney local government area of New South Wales, Australia. It was designed and built by the New South Wales Public Works Department from 1902 to 1904. It is also known as Sewage Pumping Station 18 and SPS 18. The property is owned by Sydney Water, an agency of the Government of New South Wales. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 18 November 1999.