Endeavour Field (also known by its commercial name PointsBet Stadium and colloquially as Shark Park during Cronulla Sharks matches) is a

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 ...

stadium in the southern Sydney suburb of Woolooware, New South Wales, Australia. It is the home ground of the Cronulla-Sutherland Rugby League Club, which represents the Cronulla and Sutherland Shire areas in the National Rugby League competition. Unique among NRL clubs, the Sharks own and operate their home ground. The

Sharkies Leagues Club The Cronulla Sutherland Leagues Club, known as Sharkies, is a licensed club that was established for the purpose of promoting the development of the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks and rugby league. The leagues club sits beside the Sharks home groun ...

sits beside the stadium.

History

The stadium was built in 1960 and currently has a capacity of 20,000. The Cronulla-Sutherland Rugby League Club own the stadium and Leagues Club next door, the only club in the

NRL The National Rugby League (NRL) is an Australasian rugby league club competition which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory and New Zealand. The NRL formed in 1998 as a joint partnership ...

to own their own stadium. Local councils usually own sporting venues in Australia. On 21 April 2006, the Federal Government announced a A$9.6 million grant would be given to the Cronulla Sharks to upgrade the stadium. The upgrade included a new covered stand to seat over 1,500 spectators at the southern end. The new stand was completed in time for the 2008 season. Renovations are also planned for the ET Stand, named for Cronulla club legend and games record holder

Andrew Ettingshausen Andrew "ET" Ettingshausen (born 29 October 1965) is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1980s, 1990s, and early 2000s. He played his first grade Australian club football for the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks ...

, and the Peter Burns Stand. As of June 2020, the Leagues Club is undergoing redevelopment with the Leagues Club closing its doors on 15 December 2019, with the facility originally due to reopen in early 2022. Due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

impacting construction timelines in the Leagues Club site, the completion date has been pushed back to early 2023, but Cronulla will be playing home games at the stadium again in 2022.

Ground usage

Rugby league

In the

competition, the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks team has been playing at this venue since midway through the

1968 NSWRFL season The 1968 New South Wales Rugby Football League premiership was the 61st season of professional rugby league football in Australia. Twelve teams, including six Sydney-based foundation teams and another six from around Sydney competed for the J.J. ...

, which was the club's second season into the competition (they had previously played at

Sutherland Oval Sutherland Oval is a sporting ground, situated in Sutherland, New South Wales. It has been used for professional Rugby League matches, as well as for lower tiered Soccer and Rugby Union matches over the years. Ground Usage In the late 1950s, th ...

from 1967 until 1968). High turnout in crowd numbers are usual when Cronulla play local-derby rivals, the St George Illawarra Dragons. The ground attendance record is 22,302, which was set when Cronulla-Sutherland took on St George in May 2004. In late 2017, the ground hosted the

2017 Women's Rugby League World Cup The 2017 Women's Rugby League World Cup was the fifth staging of the Women's Rugby League World Cup and was held in Australia between 16 November and 2 December 2017. Pool and semi-final matches was held at Southern Cross Group Stadium in Sydney ...

tournament. It played host to the group stages and semi-finals matches. The grand final was held at Suncorp Stadium. During the

2019 NRL season The 2019 NRL season was the 112th season of professional rugby league in Australia and the 22nd season run by the National Rugby League. The Sydney Roosters became the first team to win back-to-back Premierships since the Brisbane Broncos in 1992 ...

, it was announced that the ground and the Cronulla leagues club would be undergoing renovations and as a result Cronulla revealed that for the next two years that they would be playing home matches away from their spiritual home with

Kogarah Oval Jubilee Stadium, also known as Kogarah Oval or by its sponsored name Netstrata Jubilee Stadium, is a multipurpose stadium in Carlton, New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. The stadium is mainly used for rugby league and the A-League, and is one ...

, WIN Stadium and the new Western Sydney Stadium as new temporary home grounds.

Soccer

The Sydney Olympic FC club played at the ground for two seasons, from 2001 until 2003, in the former

National Soccer League The National Soccer League (NSL) was the top-level soccer league in Australia, run by Soccer Australia and later the Australian Soccer Association. The NSL, the A-League's predecessor, spanned 28 seasons from its inception in 1977 until its d ...

Naming rights

The ground has had numerous naming rights deals. Names of this ground over the years have been: * Endeavour Field * Ronson Field *

Caltex Caltex is a petroleum brand name of Chevron Corporation used in the Asia-Pacific region, the Middle East, and Southern Africa. It is also the brand name of non-Chevron petroleum companies in some countries (such as New Zealand, and previously ...

Field * Shark Park *

Toyota is a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on . Toyota is one of the largest automobile manufacturers in the world, producing about 10 ...

Park * Toyota Stadium * Remondis Stadium * Southern Cross Group Stadium * PointsBet Stadium

Gallery

Image:Sharkies Leagues Club Sign.JPG, Sharkies Leagues Club Sign Image:Sharkies Leagues Club.JPG, Sharkies Leagues Club Entrance File:Toyota Stadium, Woolooware, New South Wales (2010-07-19) 03.jpg, Exterior of main stand

References

{{NRL Grounds 1960 establishments in Australia Rugby league stadiums in Australia Sports venues in Sydney Sports venues completed in 1960 Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks