Norwood Oval (currently known as Coopers Stadium due to sponsorship from the Adelaide-based
Coopers Brewery
Coopers Brewery Limited, the largest Australian-owned brewery, is based in the Adelaide suburb of Regency Park. Coopers is known for making a variety of beers, the most famous of which are its Pale Ale and Sparkling Ale. In the twelve mont ...
) is a suburban oval in the western end of
Norwood, an inner eastern suburb of
Adelaide
Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...
,
South Australia
South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest o ...
. It is owned by
Norwood, Payneham & St Peters Council but managed by the
Norwood Football Club
Norwood Football Club, nicknamed the Redlegs, is an Australian rules football club competing in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL) in the state of South Australia. Its home ground is Coopers Stadium (Norwood Oval), which i ...
. Though mainly used for
Australian rules football
Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...
, the oval has been used for a variety of other sporting and community events including
baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...
,
soccer
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 ...
,
rugby league
Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...
and
American football
American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...
. It is the home ground for the Norwood Football Club ("The Redlegs") in the
South Australian National Football League
The South Australian National Football League, or SANFL ( or ''S-A-N-F-L''), is an Australian rules football league based in the Australian state of South Australia. It is also the state's sports governing body, governing body for the sport.
O ...
(SANFL) and the primary home ground of the
Adelaide Crows in
AFL Women's (AFLW).
The oval is one of two sporting venues in Adelaide to carry the name of ''Coopers Stadium''. The other is the
soccer
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
Hindmarsh Stadium which also has naming rights sponsorship from Coopers Brewery.
Australian Rules Football
The Oval has a capacity of 22,000 people, with grandstand seating for up to 3,900. The ground record crowd was set in 1971 when 20,280 turned up to watch an SANFL match between Norwood and their traditional SANFL rivals
Port Adelaide. Norwood Oval's dimensions are 165m x 110m making it the narrowest ground in use in the SANFL.
In the 1950s the Norwood Football Club received permission from the then City of Kensington & Norwood to install six light towers at the oval. This allowed Norwood to host not only night football matches but also night baseball. Regular night SANFL night series matches were played at the oval until 1984 when all night games were transferred to the SANFL's own
Football Park when construction of that grounds light towers was completed.
In 1973 the SANFL introduced the five team finals for the first time and Norwood Oval holds the distinction of hosting the first ever SANFL Elimination Final when home team Norwood defeated rivals Port Adelaide by 6 goals. The First Semi-final was also held at Norwood in 1973 when reigning premiers (and
1972 Champions of Australia North Adelaide
North Adelaide is a predominantly residential precinct and suburb of the City of Adelaide in South Australia, situated north of the River Torrens and within the Adelaide Park Lands.
History
Surveyor-General Colonel William Light of the colo ...
), led by three time
Magarey Medallist Barrie Robran
Barrie Charles Robran MBE (born 25 September 1947 in Whyalla, South Australia) is a former Australian rules footballer who represented in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL) from 1967 to 1980. He won South Australian football ...
, defeated Norwood in a close game bringing an end to the Redlegs 1973 season.
Norwood Oval was also the scene of Norwood's triumph over East Perth in the 1977 National Football League grand final.
Night football returned to Norwood Oval during the early 2000s and Friday night games at the oval (mostly featuring The Redlegs, though in 2013
Sturt will also use the venue for night games after previously using the Adelaide Oval) have been a regular feature in the SANFL ever since. With the popularity of the Friday night games, other clubs have started installing lights at their grounds with
(
Central District),
Richmond Oval (
West Adelaide),
Hickinbotham Oval
Hickinbotham Oval (currently known as Flinders University Stadium due to naming rights, and originally Noarlunga Oval) is an Australian rules football stadium in Noarlunga Downs, an outer-southern suburb of Adelaide. It has been the home of So ...
(
South Adelaide) and
Glenelg Oval (
Glenelg) all having installed lights, while
Woodville-West Torrens
Woodville-West Torrens Football Club is an Australian rules football club playing in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL). It was formed in 1990 from an amalgamation of the neighbouring Woodville and West Torrens football clu ...
will also play selected night games at the
Thebarton Oval (the former home ground of
West Torrens) after the ovals six original light towers were replaced with four modern ones by the grounds major tenant, the
South Australian Amateur Football League.
The light towers were upgraded at Norwood Oval in 2010. The six light towers that had been in place since the 1950s were replaced with 4 light towers of television standard positioned at the 'corners' of the oval.
The
Adelaide Crows women's team played one game at the venue in the AFLW's inaugural 2017 season; the other two games held in Adelaide were played at Thebarton Oval. All three home games held in Adelaide during the 2018 and 2019 seasons were played at Norwood Oval. No AFLW games were held at Norwood Oval in 2020 due to redevelopment works at the ground but the Crows returned to playing the majority of their games at Norwood Oval in 2021.
The oval will host its first
Australian Football League
The Australian Football League (AFL) is the only fully professional sports, professional competition of Australian rules football. Through the AFL Commission, the AFL also serves as the sport's governing body and is responsible for controlling ...
match on Friday April 14, 2023 when take on followed by vs on Sunday April 16 as part of the AFL's Gather Round in
round 5
Round or rounds may refer to:
Mathematics and science
* The contour of a closed curve or surface with no sharp corners, such as an ellipse, circle, rounded rectangle, cant, or sphere
* Rounding, the shortening of a number to reduce the num ...
.
Baseball
Norwood has also hosted Baseball since 1951 with the
South Australian Baseball team being tenants until 1988. Between 1951 and 1988 Norwood Oval hosted the
Claxton Shield competition on six occasions (
1951,
1956
Events
January
* January 1 – The Anglo-Egyptian Condominium ends in Sudan.
* January 8 – Operation Auca: Five U.S. evangelical Christian missionaries, Nate Saint, Roger Youderian, Ed McCully, Jim Elliot and Pete Fleming, are kille ...
,
1961
Events January
* January 3
** United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces that the United States has severed diplomatic and consular relations with Cuba (Cuba–United States relations are restored in 2015).
** Aero Flight 311 (K ...
,
1966, 1971, 1976 and 1981) with the winners being
NSW (1951),
Victoria (1956 and 1981) and SA (1961, `66, `71 and `76).
The original
Australian Baseball League (ABL) started in 1989 with Adelaide represented by the
Adelaide Giants. The ABL ran from 1989 until it folded in 1999 with the Giants playing all of their home games at Norwood Oval with most being under lights. During their time in the ABL the Giants were affiliated, as were every other team in the league, with a team from
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 (A ...
. In a massive coup the Giants managed to get themselves affiliated with the
1988 World Series champions the
Los Angeles Dodgers
The Los Angeles Dodgers are an American professional baseball team based in Los Angeles. The Dodgers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) National League West, West division. Established in 1883 i ...
with the team receiving 3-4 'import players' a season from the
Dodgers Minor League system to complement their array of 'local' talent. During the ABL the Giants never made the ABL's championship series.
Following the collapse of the ABL after 1999 and the short lived
International Baseball League of Australia
The International Baseball League of Australia was a baseball league which existed from 1999 to 2002.
The league was created by David Nilsson after he purchased the rights to the Australian Baseball League in 1999 when it was near financial coll ...
(IBLA) which ran from
1999-2000 until the
2002 the Claxton Shield was revived in 2003 with South Australia playing their games at the
Thebarton Oval before moving back to Norwood Oval in 2009.
In August 2010 it was announced that there would be a new
Australian Baseball League and that Norwood Oval would be the home ground of
Adelaide Bite, the team representing Adelaide in the ABL.
Prior to 2009, the baseball diamond at Norwood Oval was located closer to the Wood Street stand. The third base line ran almost parallel to the stand, with the first base line running east towards the outer side of the ground. The diamond was then moved to its present position in 2009.
As of February 2012 Norwood Oval's field dimensions for baseball are:
Norwood Oval baseball dimensions
/ref>
Left Field -
Centre Field -
Right Field -
References
External links
*
{{australian-baseball-stadiums
Cricket grounds in Australia
Sports venues in Adelaide
Australian rules football grounds
Baseball venues in Australia
Soccer venues in South Australia
Multi-purpose stadiums in Australia
Sports venues completed in 1901
AFL Women's grounds