Concord Oval is a
rugbyRugby football is a style of football named after Rugby School in the United Kingdom. It is seen most prominently in two current sports, rugby league and rugby union.-History:...
stadiumA modern stadium is a place or venue for outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage either partly or completely surrounded by a structure designed to allow spectators to stand or sit and view the event.)Pausanias noted that for about half a century the only event...
in
ConcordConcord is a suburb in the inner west of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located 15 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Canada Bay....
,
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. It is currently used mostly for
rugby unionRugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...
matches and was used for eight matches during the
1987 Rugby World CupThe 1987 Rugby World Cup was the first Rugby World Cup. New Zealand and Australia agreed to co-host the first ever tournament with New Zealand hosting seventeen pool stage matches, two quarter-finals and the final with Australia being the junior partner hosting seven pool matches, two...
. The stadium is able to hold 20,000 people and opened in 1985.
The stadium has two opposing grandstands. The eastern stand hosts the tennis box-style seats, television gantry and the change rooms. The stand runs approximately from try-line to try-line. The western stand contains a gym and some boxes. This stand runs approximately from dead-ball line to dead ball line. In front of the western stand are two rows of seats, while a concrete path runs around the field (except not in front of the aforementioned two rows of seats, the path runs behind those seats). At each end there is a grassy hill, and at the southern or Parramatta Road end, there is a wooden, manually operated scoreboard with an analogue clock. The stadium is bordered by Gipps Street to the north,
Parramatta RoadThe Great Western Highway is a highway in New South Wales, Australia. It runs 210 km from Sydney to Bathurst.Starting as Broadway at the intersection of City Road near the fringe of the Sydney CBD, and becoming Parramatta Road to Parramatta itself, the Great Western Highway heads due west from...
to the south, Loftus Street to the west and the Cintra Hockey Centre to the east. Parking is at a premium with small carparks behind the northern hill, eastern stand and in the south-east corner, although
Burwood train stationBurwood is a major station on the main suburban line in the suburb of Burwood in Sydney. The station is located on Burwood Road, close to major shops and schools, and consists of platforms on all six of the tracks through the station. The concourse is situated below the platforms with access to...
is not too far away, and the 439, L39, 464 and 466 bus routes pass close to the stadium. With the completion of the Sydney Football Stadium, and later Stadium Australia, the
New South Wales WaratahsThe New South Wales Waratahs are an Australian rugby union football team, representing the majority of New South Wales in the Super 15 Super Rugby competition...
and
Australian WallabiesThe Australian national rugby union team is the representative side of Australia in rugby union. The national team is nicknamed the Wallabies and competes annually with New Zealand and South Africa in the Tri-Nations Series, in which they also contest the Bledisloe Cup with New Zealand and the...
have not played at the stadium in many years, and a return is unlikely, especially considering how expansion is almost impossible due to housing to the west, roads to the north and south, and a hockey complex and canal to the east. Other issues are that the stadium does not have floodlights, a video screen, parking or modern spectator amenities.
Concord Oval remains the home ground of
West Harbour RFCThe West Harbour Rugby Football Club is a team in the Shute Shield, the premier club rugby union football competition in New South Wales.The club is based in Concord in the Inner West of Sydney, and play their home matches at Waratah Stadium, Concord Oval...
, and is also the training and administration base for the
Wests TigersThe Wests Tigers are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Sydney's mid-western suburbs. They have competed in the National Rugby League since they were formed at the end of the 1999 season as a joint-venture club between the Balmain Tigers and the Western Suburbs...
. The stadium also hosted four first grade
rugby leagueRugby league football, usually called rugby league, is a full contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular grass field. One of the two codes of rugby football, it originated in England in 1895 by a split from Rugby Football Union over paying players...
matches, three of them in 1994 as Canterbury's second home ground during that season. However, as far as high-profile events go, the stadium lies dormant in the heart of the inner west of Sydney, and will likely remain that way.