Franklin Field
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America
Franklin Field, Philadelphia, United States of America — opened 1895, 2 rugby league games hosted, home of No rugby league club -- the ground's permanent tenant is the University of Pennsylvania's Penn Quakers (American football and track), which also hosted the NFL's Philadelphia Eagles from 1958 to 1970. Its two rugby league matches were one-off USA national team fixtures.
Ground facts
| Opened | 1895 (1895 is when Franklin Field first opened, for the inaugural Penn Relays, making it the USA's oldest operating college football stadium; it was substantially rebuilt and reopened in 1903. Neither date relates to its rugby league use, which came over a century later.) |
| Home club | No rugby league club -- the ground's permanent tenant is the University of Pennsylvania's Penn Quakers (American football and track), which also hosted the NFL's Philadelphia Eagles from 1958 to 1970. Its two rugby league matches were one-off USA national team fixtures |
| Games hosted (rugby league, on record) | 2 |
| Top recorded crowd | 4,500 |
| Capacity | 52,958 since a 2003 renovation (in place for both rugby league matches); historically as high as around 78,000 between 1925 and 1958 |
| Surface | Sprinturf, an artificial surface installed in 2004, in place for both rugby league matches (the ground was natural grass from 1895-1968 and AstroTurf from 1969-2003) |
| Years used | 2004–2006 |
| Location | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
Name history
Rugby league history
This historic University of Pennsylvania stadium hosted rugby league twice: a 2004 USA loss to Australia that drew the venue's recorded top crowd of 4,500, and a 2006 USA win over Japan. Independently re-confirmed via direct WebFetch of Rugby League Project's own match records for this entry, a date discrepancy is disclosed rather than resolved: RLP dates the Australia match to 30 November 2004, while a Wikipedia results list gives 1 December 2004, likely a timezone-conversion artifact; RLP's date is treated as the more authoritative record. A separate, unrelated USA-Japan match played elsewhere in Philadelphia later in 2006 should not be confused with this venue's fixtures.
Sources
Data last verified: 11 August 2026.
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