You will find everything about Canberra Stadium in this article. Because of the sponsorship reasons the Canberra Stadium, now a day known as Gio Stadium, Canberra. It has a rich history to tell as it is the major rugby league and rugby union stadium of the world which is right next to the Australian Institute of Sports of Canberra, the capital of Australia. Let us know more about this stadium in details.
Basic Details of Canberra Stadium
Current Name: Gio Stadium, Canberra
Former Names: Canberra Stadium, Bruce Stadium and National Athletics Stadium
Address: Battye St., Bruce ACT 2617, Australia
Capacity: 25, 011 fans
Surface: Grass
Opened: in 1977
Architects: Phillip Cox & Partners
Owner: Australian Sports Commission
Tenants:
- Canberra Raiders (NRL since 1990)
- ACT Brumbies (Super Rugby since 1996)
- Canberra City SC (NSL between 1977 and 1986)
- Canberra Cosmos (NSL between 1995 and 2001
- Canberra Bushrangers (ABL between 1993 and 1995)
Official Website: giostadiumcanberra.com.au
More about Canberra Stadium
The Canberra Stadium was specially constructed for the Pacific Conference Games of 1977. It also became the venue for the 4th IAAF World Cup of Athletics. But during the late 1980s the running track was removed and it was turned in to a warm up stadium for the AIS site. In 1990 the Canberra Raiders the New South Wales Rugby League team was shifted to the Bruce Stadium (its past name) from the Seiffert Oval which was situated in the Queanbeyan and since then it has become their home ground.
After the removal of the Athletics track the ground was also became available for the Aussie Rule Football of Footy. Since 1995 the Footy team Sydney Swans play their home games here at the Canberra Stadium. As an experiment a day and night cricket match was also played between two local teams by laying down a pitch in the middle during mid 1990s.
The current seating capacity of the stadium is to accommodate 25, 011 fans. But the stadium has witnessed the largest crowd of 28, 753 fans during the Super 12 final of the 2004. The main grand stand has been named after the Australian Rugby Union and Canberra Raiders team player Mal Meninga. Another ARU player and also a former Raider player Laurie Daley got the honor to have his statue at the main entrance of the grandstand. The Australian Ruby and Brumbies greats George Gregan and Stephen Larkham too has the honors to share a stand in their name. The eastern grandstand of the Gio Stadium Canberra is called the Gregan – Larkham Stand.
