Sydney Football Stadium (Old)

Sydney (Moore Park), New South Wales, Australia

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Sydney Football Stadium (Old), Sydney (Moore Park), Australia — opened 1988, 1,350 rugby league games hosted, home of Sydney Roosters (1988-2018) and South Sydney Rabbitohs (1988-1999, 2002-2005); also home to the NSW Waratahs (rugby union) and Sydney FC (A-League).

Sourcing caveat: No 1992 Rugby League World Cup match at this venue could be confirmed: the 1989-1992 tournament's final was played at Wembley specifically because "the Sydney Football Stadium could only seat 42,000" (per Wikipedia's tournament history), and no pool or semi-final fixture here for that tournament turned up in research — so no 1992 World Cup content is included, despite that year being flagged as a candidate. Separately, this site's own already-published "Allianz Stadium" entry dates the Allianz sponsorship here to "2018-2019 (old stadium, until demolition)"; two independent sources found in this research (Austadiums and The Stadium Guide) instead agree the Allianz naming rights began in 2012 and ran through the stadium's 2018 closure. This entry uses the better-corroborated 2012 date; the discrepancy with the other entry is flagged here rather than silently resolved, since fixing the other entry is outside this write-up's scope.

Ground facts

Opened	1988 (Officially opened 24 January 1988, ahead of Australia's bicentenary; the first competitive rugby league match followed on 4 March 1988.)
Home club	Sydney Roosters (1988-2018) and South Sydney Rabbitohs (1988-1999, 2002-2005); also home to the NSW Waratahs (rugby union) and Sydney FC (A-League)
Closed	2018 (final NRL fixture 22 September 2018; the venue's last event overall was a concert on 5 October 2018)
Demolished	2019
Site today	Rebuilt on the same footprint as the new Allianz Stadium (opened 2022), a separate, already-listed venue on this site
Games hosted (rugby league, on record)	1,350
Top recorded crowd	44,380 (44,380 — Sydney Roosters vs South Sydney Rabbitohs, NRL finals series, 22 September 2018 (also the venue's rugby-league-specific attendance record))
Capacity	45,500 (44,000 seated) in its final configuration, up from around 41,000-42,000 at opening
Grand Finals hosted	4
First rugby league match	Eastern Suburbs Roosters vs St George Dragons, 4 March 1988 — St George won 24-14
Last rugby league match	Sydney Roosters vs South Sydney Rabbitohs, NRL finals series, 22 September 2018 — the stadium's largest-ever crowd (44,380) attended
Years used	1988–2018
Location	Sydney (Moore Park), New South Wales

Name history

Sydney Football Stadium — 1988-2002
Aussie Stadium — 2002-2007
Sydney Football Stadium — 2007-2012 (reverted)
Allianz Stadium — 2012-2019, until demolition

Rugby league history

Built on the site of the old Sydney Sports Ground at Moore Park and opened on 24 January 1988, the stadium hosted the NSWRL/ARL/NRL premiership Grand Final every year from its first season through to 1998 — 11 straight deciders — before the competition relocated to the purpose-built, far larger Stadium Australia at Homebush for 1999. It was home ground for the Sydney Roosters and, for long stretches, South Sydney across three decades, and NSW's home venue for State of Origin games in this period, including Mark Coyne's famous last-gasp Origin try for Queensland in Game One of 1994 ("That's not a try, that's a miracle"). It later returned to international prominence as a Rugby League World Cup venue, hosting the 2008 tournament's opening match and ceremony (Australia 30-6 New Zealand, 26 October 2008) and a semi-final (Australia beat Fiji, 16 November 2008), plus two 2017 World Cup group matches involving Lebanon, including Australia's 34-0 win. The stadium closed after 30 years' use in 2018 and was demolished amid political controversy over cost in 2019; a new stadium was built on the same footprint, reopening in 2022 as Allianz Stadium (see our separate entry for that venue).

Also a major rugby union venue (Wallabies Tests, NSW Waratahs) and a football venue — it hosted 2000 Olympic football matches and 2003 Rugby World Cup fixtures, and was Sydney FC's A-League home from 2005.

Historic Test matches, Cup & Grand Finals hosted

1988 NSWRL Grand Final — Canterbury-Bankstown 24-12 Balmain Tigers (the first Grand Final at the new stadium)
1989 NSWRL/ARL Grand Final, 24 September 1989 — Canberra Raiders 19-14 Balmain Tigers after extra time, attendance 40,500+ (widely regarded as one of the greatest Grand Finals ever played)
1997 ARL Grand Final, 28 September 1997 — Newcastle Knights 22-16 Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles (Super League war-era "ARL" competition), attendance 42,482
1998 NRL Grand Final, 27 September 1998 — Brisbane Broncos 38-12 Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs, attendance 40,857 (the first Grand Final of the reunified NRL, and the last Grand Final held at this stadium before the competition relocated to the new Stadium Australia for 1999)

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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