Trish Kelson
Australians love their sports and they have plenty of world class venues and elite stadiums to prove it. Here's a look at the top 5 sporting venues in Sidney.
The location of the 2000 Olympics, 2003 Rugby World Cup and 2008 Rugby League World Cup, the Allianz stadium, commonly known to locals as the Sydney Football Stadium, is one of Australia's most recognised sporting venues. It has a seating capacity of 45,500 and is the home stadium to the Sydney Roosters. The stadium is situated in the central business district amidst towering skyscrapers, arcades and the best Hotel Apartments in Sydney, like the Oaks Goldsbrough Apartments for instance. The Allianz is adjacent to the Sydney Cricket Ground, one of the best cricket grounds in the country.
The Royal Randwick Racecourse is operated by the Australian Turf Club and is considered by most race goers as racing headquarters. The Randwick hosts several first class races such as the Australian Derby, Doncaster Handicap and Queen Elizabeth Stakes. Since 2014, it also hosts The Championships, a two-day season-ending race that offers AUS$ 18 million worth of prizes. Besides horseracing, the Racecourse has been used as a venue for different kinds of big events such as religious masses and big music concerts like the annual Future Music Festival which is held at the racecourse.
Designed specifically as the centrepiece for the Sydney 2000 Olympic and Paralympic Games, it was built to seat more than 110,000 spectators, however a renovation of the Stadium in 2003 reduced the capacity to 83,500 but presented the Stadium with the ability to host five types of sports. Thanks to entire sections of moveable seating, the stadium's shape can change in a matter of hours from a rectangular field to an oval ground. The Stadium is also kitted out with several environmentally friendly features like passive ventilation, rain water collection and re-use, and maximum use of natural lighting among others. Each tier at the stadium has its own enclosed space with food, beverage, merchandise and toilet facilities available, providing easy access for spectators.
With a history that dates back to 1848, the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) is one of the world's leading cricketing venues. The stadium has a limited seating capacity of 40,000 but this allows it the benefit of ensuring that spectators are close to the action from any point in the ground. In its early days, the pitch was more advantageous to batsmen's and quite a few enormous run rates have been scored here including Sir Donald Bradman's personal best of 452* for New South Wales. However, after several modifications were made to the grounds over the years, the pitch has come to be seen as a bowler's paradise. Besides cricket, football and rugby are also played on these grounds. Up until the Allianz Stadium was built next door in 1988, the Sydney Cricket Ground was the major venue for several big rugby tournaments.
