Holloway Field (officially Viticon Stadium, formerly Onehub Stadium, powered by Optus) is a

baseball stadium A ballpark, or baseball park, is a type of sports venue where baseball is played. The playing field is divided into the infield, an area whose dimensions are rigidly defined, and the outfield, where dimensions can vary widely from place to pla ...

Newmarket, Queensland Newmarket is a north-west suburb in the City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. In the , Newmarket had a population of 4,979 people. Geography Newmarket is located approximately by road from the Brisbane GPO. It is an older, mostly resident ...

, Australia. It is the home to the

Brisbane Bandits The Brisbane Bandits are a professional baseball team in Brisbane, Queensland that plays in the Australian Baseball League and is one of the six founding teams of the league. From the 2010/11 season till the 2012/13 season their home ballpark w ...

of the

Australian Baseball League The Australian Baseball League (ABL) is a professional baseball league in Australia. The league is governed by the Australian Baseball Federation (ABF). It uses the same name as a now-defunct competition held during the 1990s, and though it ...

and Windsor Royals baseball club in

, Australia.

Background

After the formation of the Windsor Royals in 1955, the club looked for a permanent site to play baseball. Originally, Crosby Park in

Albion Albion is an alternative name for Great Britain. The oldest attestation of the toponym comes from the Greek language. It is sometimes used poetically and generally to refer to the island, but is less common than 'Britain' today. The name for Scot ...

was planned to be the new ground for the Royals, but was rejected by the

Brisbane City Council Brisbane City Council (BCC) is the democratic executive local government authority for the City of Brisbane, the capital city of the state of Queensland, Australia. The largest City Council in Australia by population and area, BCC's jurisd ...

. In 1964, the club was approved to break ground for a stadium at Spencer Park in Newmarket. On 10 May 1964, the ground was officially named Holloway Field after the Windsor foundation and life member, Stan Holloway. It was expanded and renovated in 1986 and again was refurbished to accommodate the

home

fixtures after they moved from the Brisbane Exhibition Ground for the 2013–14 season. The field itself is a fully fenced and regulation size field with covered sunken dugouts, two bullpens, two battery cages, two officials' boxes, a scorers' box and seating for 1500.

Floodlighting A floodlight is a broad-beamed, high-intensity artificial light. They are often used to illuminate outdoor playing fields while an outdoor sports event is being held during low-light conditions. More focused kinds are often used as a stage ...

was added on 24 September 1982 and a sprinkler system two years later. It was prior to the

2000 Summer Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 (Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from 1 ...

the training camp of the Netherlands national baseball team and has hosted a variety of international baseball matches, including the World Master Games. It was the home ground of the

Queensland Rams Queensland Rams compete in the Claxton Shield Baseball Championship in Australia. The Rams were one of the founding teams of the Claxton Shield in 1934 and competed as ''Queensland'' until 1988. Between 1988 and 1999, the Claxton Shield was awar ...

for

Claxton Shield The Claxton Shield was the name of the premier baseball competition in Australia held between state-based teams, as well as the name of the trophy awarded to the champion team. From the summer of 1989–90 until 2001–02, and again since 2010� ...

games prior to the reformation of the ABL. With the arrival of the

for the 2013–14 season also came upgrades to the ballpark. A new brick backstop, new backstop netting, seating added to the tiered grandstands as well as a refurbished infield. A progressive replacement plan for the lighting towers was implemented to bring Holloway Field up to the highest standard for night games. After the completion of the

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

Opening Series at the

Sydney Cricket Ground The Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) is a sports stadium in Sydney, Australia. It is used for Test cricket, Test, One Day International and Twenty20 cricket, as well as, Australian rules football and occasionally for rugby league, rugby union and as ...

in 2014, the foul poles that were fabricated for the event were relocated to Brisbane and erected at Holloway Field prior to the 2014–15 Australian Baseball League season.

References

Baseball venues in Australia Sports venues in Brisbane 1964 establishments in Australia Sports venues completed in 1964 Brisbane Bandits {{baseball-venue-stub