Adelaide Oval
Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
Adelaide Oval, Adelaide, Australia — opened 13 Dec 1873 (as a cricket ground), 32 rugby league games hosted, home of None for rugby league — used only for occasional State of Origin fixtures, not a tenant club.
Sourcing caveat: Any claim of regular-season NRL matches at Adelaide Oval itself (as opposed to other historical Adelaide venues) is NOT confirmed and is deliberately not stated as fact here.
Ground facts
| Opened | 13 Dec 1873 (as a cricket ground) (Primarily and overwhelmingly a cricket/AFL venue; rugby league use is a recent (2020s) phenomenon.) |
| Home club | None for rugby league — used only for occasional State of Origin fixtures, not a tenant club |
| Games hosted (rugby league, on record) | 32 |
| Top recorded crowd | 48,613 |
| Capacity | approx. 53,500 current; historical peak reportedly 72,000 for the 1927 Royal Visit; highest recorded attendance 62,543 (1965 SANFL Grand Final) |
| Test matches hosted | 2 |
| Floodlights installed | Installed 1997 (an initial retractable design had issues; permanent light towers installed later) |
| Surface | Grass, approx. 190m x 125m; a drop-in pitch has been used since 2013, typical for an AFL/cricket oval hosting other codes |
| Years used | 1948–2023 |
| Location | Adelaide, South Australia |
Name history
- Adelaide Oval — since 1873, no renaming found; individual stands are named after notable figures, but not the venue itself
Rugby league history
Adelaide Oval is Australia's premier South Australian cricket/AFL venue; rugby league use is a recent (2020s) phenomenon tied to the NRL's State of Origin regional expansion strategy, hosting the series opener twice. No regular-season NRL match at Adelaide Oval itself could be confirmed — earlier NRL 'Adelaide' tenancies (such as the Adelaide Rams in the 1990s) most likely refer to other Adelaide venues (e.g. Football Park/Hindmarsh Stadium), not Adelaide Oval, though this distinction was not exhaustively verified.
Primarily a cricket and AFL venue.
Historic Test matches, Cup & Grand Finals hosted
- 4 Nov 2020 — State of Origin 2020, Game I, played with COVID-restricted attendance capped at 25,000
- 31 May 2023 — State of Origin 2023, Game I, the first full-capacity Origin crowd at the venue
Pre-dates the site's structured match-by-match records for these competitions, so listed here as sourced facts rather than linked match pages.
Sources
Data last verified: 11 August 2026.
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