Julian Keith
AFTER a whirlwind 220 days of sport and entertainment, Stadium Australia has topped 1 million fans for 2015 and is on track to post its highest annual attendance for events since the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games.
The 73,824 fans who passed through the gates to witness an unforgettable Bledisloe Cup Test on Saturday night took the aggregate 2015 attendance for events at Stadium Australia to 1,172,812.
This was the seventh event to top 50,000 spectators this year, following the hugely successful AFC Asian Cup in January and a monster week of major events in late May-early June that featured State of Origin I (80,122) and visits by English Premier League clubs Tottenham Hotspur (71,549) and Chelsea (83,598).
As Sydney prepares to celebrate 15 years since the 2000 Olympics this September, the total attendance for events at the city’s Olympic stadium since it was opened in 1999 in the lead-up to the Games is now 23,016,911. (*The attendance figures do not include visits to the Stadium for more than 160 corporate and private events each year).
The highest annual event attendance at Stadium Australia since 2000 was the 1.634million that was posted in 2013 during a year that featured a British & Irish Lions Rugby Test and a visit by English Premier League giants Manchester United.
“Our projections for 2015 have the Stadium event attendance eclipsing that figure and going above 1.65million fans,” said Greg Sleigh, Stadium Australia’s General Manager of Event & Business Development.
“We are enjoying a record-breaking year featuring great events across the sporting codes and we have a very strong spring schedule coming up, with more than 250,000 new patrons expected at the Stadium to see a line-up of events that includes concerts featuring rock legends AC/DC and pop queen Taylor Swift in November.”
The blockbuster crowds at Stadium Australia in 2015 have included:
- 83,598 Chelsea FC v Sydney FC, Tuesday 2 June
- 80,122 State of Origin I NSW v Queensland, Wednesday 27 May
- 76,385 AFC Asian Cup Final Australia v South Korea, Saturday 31 January
- 73,824 Wallabies v All Blacks, Bledisloe Cup Test, Saturday 8 August
- 71,549 Tottenham Hotspur v Sydney FC, Saturday 30 May
- 53,379 Foo Fighters, Sonic Highway World Tour concert, Thursday 26 February
- 50,276 AFC Asian Cup Australia v Oman, Tuesday 13 January
- 40,523 NRL Round 5, Bulldogs v Rabbitohs, Good Friday 3 April
The NSW Government’s tourism and major events agency Destination NSW estimated the back-to-back English Premier League club visits to be worth more than $16 million to the NSW economy.
Major scheduled events still to come in 2015 at Stadium Australia include:
- The NRL Grand Final on Sunday 4 October;
- Monster Jam monster trucks spectacular on Saturday 17 October;
- Two concerts featuring rock legends AC/DC on Wednesday 4 & Saturday 7 November;
- Pop queen Taylor Swift’s “1989” World Tour concert on Saturday 28 November.
Each of these events are on track to draw crowds in excess of 50,000 spectators.
The Sydney Olympic Park precinct welcomed more than 105,000 visitors on Saturday 8 August on a day that featured the Bledisloe Cup rugby Test, Day 2 of the Netball World Cup at Allphones Arena and Netball Central, and the Good Food & Wine Festival at Sydney Showgrounds.
The Netball World Cup broke the netball attendance world record three times in a single week, with the final benchmark being set at an incredible 16,752 fans who crammed into Allphones Arena to see the Aussie Diamonds defend their World Cup crown as they defeated the NZ Silver Ferns in the NWC Final. The record was initially set at 16,233 in the same fixture a week prior.
About 76 per cent of all visitors to Sydney Olympic Park on Super Saturday used public transport.
Sports and entertainment fans to major events at Stadium Australia regularly benefit from integrated train transport in all tickets and are able to travel to the front door of Stadium Australia at no additional cost.
