The Ballarat Regional Soccer Facility, also referred to by its location as Morshead Park Stadium, is an

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

- specific stadium in

Redan Redan (a French word for "projection", "salient") is a feature of fortifications. It is a work in a V-shaped salient angle towards an expected attack. It can be made from earthworks or other material. The redan developed from the lunette, o ...

, a suburb immediately to the south of central Ballarat, Victoria, Australia. It is the home of the

Ballarat City FC Ballarat City FC is an Australian semi-professional association football club based in Ballarat, Victoria. For most of its history, the club's home ground was Trekardo Park, before making the move to the Ballarat Regional Soccer Facility in 201 ...

, who play in the

National Premier Leagues The National Premier Leagues (NPL) is a national association football competition in Australia which acts as the second tier of the sport in the country below the A-League. The NPL consists of the highest level state league in each state-based ...

Victoria, the second tier of Australian football, after the A-League.

Construction

During 2013, the

City of Ballarat The City of Ballarat is a local government area in the west of the state of Victoria, Australia. It covers an area of and, in June 2018, had a population of 107,325. Estimated resident population, 30 June 2018. It is primarily urban with the v ...

Council matched a Federal Government investment of $2.675 million announced by then Prime Minister of Australia Julia Gillard in June of that year in a major upgrade of Morshead Park with a view to host training for National Teams in the

2015 Asian Cup The 2015 AFC Asian Cup was the 16th edition of the men's AFC Asian Cup, a quadrennial international football tournament organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). It was held in Australia from 9 to 31 January 2015. The tournament wa ...

, including new grandstands, lights and returfing the field to form the Ballarat Regional Soccer Facility. The main grandstand seats 500, with an additional standing capacity for a further 8000 on viewing embankments. There is space for temporary stands to be erected across from the main grandstand to bring the total capacity up to 12,000. Aside from the main pitch, there are two further fully lit football fields adjacent. In total, the facility adds 3,000 pitch hours of availability annually to local clubs.

Tenants

The Ballarat Red Devils played their first game in the stadium on 3 May 2014, losing 1-2 to

South Melbourne FC South Melbourne Football Club is an Australian semi-professional soccer club based in suburb of Albert Park, in Melbourne, Victoria. The club currently competes in the National Premier Leagues Victoria, with matches played at Lakeside Stadium ...

in the NPLV, although the main grandstand was not yet fully complete. South Melbourne player Milos Lujic scored the inaugural goal in the facility. On 9 May 2014,

Premier of Victoria The premier of Victoria is the head of government in the Australian state of Victoria. The premier is appointed by the governor of Victoria, and is the leader of the political party able to secure a majority in the Victorian Legislative Assemb ...

Denis Napthine Denis Vincent Napthine (born 6 March 1952) is a former Australian politician who was the 47th Premier of Victoria. Napthine was a Liberal Party member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly, representing the electoral district of Portland fro ...

announced that the facility would be hosting the Bahrain national football team for a sixteen-day training camp prior to the Asian Cup.

Western United Western United Football Club is an Australian professional football club. The club is based in the western Melbourne suburb of Truganina, the club aims to represent western Victoria, incorporating the western suburbs of Melbourne; the region ...

will play an

A-League Men A-League Men (known as the Isuzu UTE A-League for sponsorship reasons) is the highest-level professional men's soccer league in Australia and New Zealand. At the top of the Australian league system, it is the country's premier men's competit ...

match against

Wellington Phoenix Wellington Phoenix Football Club is a professional association football club based in Wellington, New Zealand. It competes in the Australian A-League, under licence from Football Federation Australia. Phoenix entered the competition in the ...

at Morsehead Park on 9 April 2022.

References

External links

{{National Premier Leagues Victoria stadiums , state=expanded Soccer venues in Melbourne Sports venues in Melbourne