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Carrara Stadium or Carrara Sports
Complex is a sporting venue on the Gold
Coast in Queensland, Australia, located in the suburb of Carrara.
It received substantial redevelopment work prior to the entry of
the Brisbane
Bears for their entry to the VFL/AFL in 1987, but since
the Bears relocated to Brisbane
Cricket Ground in 1993, it has been used for other sports
including rugby
league, rugby
union and even baseball.
History
Carrara Stadium was redeveloped by Christopher Skase after the Brisbane Bears
were granted a licence to enter the VFL Australian rules
football competition. The stadium was built with makeshift stands
designed for night games to maximise the television audience. The
Fitzroy Football Club defeated
the Brisbane Bears in the first VFL game played at Carrara Oval
before a crowd of 17,795 in 1987.[1] (The Brisbane Lions
website records this crowd as 22,684, however the stadium did not
have this capacity in 1987.)[1]
The Bears onfield performance proved poor and VFL crowds at
Carrara stadium never reached these heights again. In 1993 the
Bears relocated to the
Gabba.
The ground was then sold to the Gold Coast City Council (GCCC).
In 1988, Carrara Stadium played host to the very first Touch Football World Cup in
which teams from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea
and the USA competed in the Men's, Women's and Mixed Opens as well
as Men's Over 35's divisions. Australia won all 4 division finals
which were played against New Zealand.
The Gold Coast Clippers played their
1989-90 Australian Baseball League
season at Carrara before changing their name to the Daikyo Dolphins
and moving to Palm
Meadows. For the 1992-93 season they moved back to Carrara as
the Gold
Coast Cougars. The Cougars stayed at Carrara until the
abolition of the Australian Baseball League in 1999.
In 1996 when the Gold Coast Seagulls moved to
Carrara from Tweed Heads. They continued to use the ground until
the end of the 1998
NRL season when they were excluded from the competition as a
part of the rationalisation of the National Rugby League. Rugby
league matches continued to be played at the stadium, with
pre-season trials being played there annually from 2002 to 2005[2], and
NRL premiership matches in 2001 and 2005. The ground's capacity was
increased slightly during this time. In 2005 the NRL announced that
a licence would be awarded to the Gold Coast Titans, and that the
stadium would be their home ground in 2007 until the completion of
Skilled Park, which was be opened in
2008.[3]
In response to the NRL move, the AFL scheduled 3 AFL 'home
games' for the North Melbourne
Kangaroos and a NAB Cup match for Carrara for 2007, and the Queensland State League began hosting Grand
Finals there.
The Gold Coast City Council built an indoor sports centre nearby
which hosted the Gold Coast Rollers National Basketball League team until 1996,
when they were excluded from the competition.
Current
Carrara is still used for some Australian rules games even
though it is no longer home to a professional club, hosting events
such as the junior representative championships, Queensland State League finals matches and
holds a status of a secondary AFL venue, becoming a second home to
AFL club the North Melbourne
Kangaroos, which has been contracted since 2007 to play at
least 3 premiership season matches at Carrara a year.
However, the AFL has announced a new team, the Gold Coast FC and has also
announced that they will play games at Carrara. The Queensland
Government has promised to contribute $60 million towards the
redevelopment of the stadium which would increase the capacity to
around 25,000 with 23,500 seated.[4] The
Gold Coast City Council also will contribute $20 million.[5] Finally
the AFL has promised $10 million.[6] This is
a total of $90 million. The esablishment of Gold Coast FC is
expected to contribute $34 million dollars to the region, 92 per
cent of which will go to benefit non-AFL businesses in the Gold
Coast such as tourism, retail and hospitality industries.[7]
Redevelopment
The venue's redevelopment, expected to be completed by 2011.
On Friday, 30th October 2009, demolition work began on the $126
millon redevolpment of the stadium.[8] The
redeveloped stadium will seat 25000 spectators, and will later be
extended to seat 40000-50000.[9] The
stadium will feature an AFL oval capable of accommodating an
ICC-compliant cricket oval, an IAAF Athletics field and a FIFA
World Cup soccer field, facilities for 2,000 corporate patrons, AFL
team and officials’ changing facilities, AFL media facilities, and
team and officials’ suites.[10] Watpac
have been contracted for the construction, which is scheduled for
completion in mid-2011.[11]
Attendance
records
Tenants
Sources
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