Ballymore is a

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...

stadium situated in Herston, a suburb of

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Queensland, and the third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of approximately 2.6 million. Brisbane lies at the centre of the South ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

. It is the headquarters of

Queensland Rugby Union The Queensland Rugby Union, or QRU, is the governing body for the sport of rugby union within the state of Queensland in Australia. It is a member and founding union of Rugby Australia. The QRU was founded in Brisbane in 1883 as the ''Northern ...

and was the home ground of the Brisbane City team in the

National Rugby Championship The National Rugby Championship, known as NRC, was an Australian rugby union competition. It was contested by eight teams, seven from Australia and one from Fiji. The tournament ran from 2014 until 2019 before being disbanded in 2020 following t ...

, until the league's disbandment in 2019. It is also used as a training facility for the

Queensland Reds The Queensland Reds is the rugby union team for the Australian state of Queensland that competes in the Southern Hemisphere's Super Rugby competition. Prior to 1996, they were a representative team selected from the rugby union club competitions ...

and

Australian Wallabies The Australia national rugby union team, nicknamed the Wallabies, is the representative national team in the sport of rugby union for the nation of Australia. The team first played at Sydney in 1899, winning their first test match against th ...

rugby teams. The stadium was the home ground of the Reds until they moved to

Suncorp Stadium Lang Park, also known as Brisbane Football Stadium, by the sponsored name Suncorp Stadium, and nicknamed: 'The Cauldron', is a multi-purpose stadium in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, located in the suburb of Milton. The current facility co ...

in 2006. The

Brisbane Strikers Brisbane Strikers Football Club is an Australian semi-professional football club based in Brisbane, Queensland. Founded in 1991 as Brisbane United, the club competed in the National Soccer League until the 2003–04 season and was one of tw ...

football club also played at the ground prior to 2003. Ballymore was used as a training facility and headquarters for

A-League 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 competiti ...

club

Brisbane Roar Brisbane Roar Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Brisbane, Queensland and has won the domestic title on three occasions, as well as holding the longest unbeaten record of 36 league matches without defeat. Brisba ...

from 2008 to 2014.

History

The QRU set up headquarters at Ballymore in 1966 under a deed of grant from the state government. The first club game played at the new site was a match between Teachers and Wests. The QRU moved in February 1967. In March of the following year Ballymore's grandstand was officially opened. The Eastern Stand was opened on 21 June 1992. The ground exceeded capacity in 1993 when 26,000 watched the Wallabies play South Africa. A year later the first match under lights was played at the ground. Today the grandstand is known as the McLean Stand (named in 1982 after the

McLean family The McLean family were an Australian rugby clan who between them played 77 Tests for the Australian national rugby union team and a number of Tests for the Australian national rugby league team. The main grandstand at Ballymore, the home of the ...

). The Eastern stand is known as the Bank of QLD stand. The Queensland Reds played their home matches at Ballymore from 1967 until 2005. Their

Super Rugby Super Rugby is a men's professional rugby union club competition involving teams from Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands. It previously included teams from Argentina, Japan, and South Africa. Building on various Southern Hem ...

matches were moved to

for the 2006 season but they still played their home games in the

2006 Australian Provincial Championship The 2006 Australian Provincial Championship (APC), held in September, was the inaugural season of a competition between Australia's four Super 14 rugby union sides. Following a round robin phase, a final was held between the two top sides, with t ...

at Ballymore. The stadium also hosted the Ballymore Tornadoes during the only season of the

Australian Rugby Championship The Australian Rugby Championship, often abbreviated to the ARC and also known as the Mazda Australian Rugby Championship for sponsorship purposes, is a now-defunct domestic professional men's rugby union football competition in Australia, which ...

in 2007.

Present use

Though the Reds have since moved out of Ballymore to Suncorp Stadium, which has almost three times the capacity, Ballymore is still the host to many rugby union matches. The

Queensland Premier Rugby Queensland Premier Rugby is a semi professional club rugby union competition in Queensland, Australia. Nine clubs play in the competition, eight of which are from Brisbane with one club from the Gold Coast. The premiership has been conteste ...

finals are held at the ground, and Queensland XV and off-season matches for the Reds are also played at Ballymore. Since 2014, the Brisbane City team in the

has played home matches at the stadium. The QRU has plans to redevelop the site to include a high performance centre comprising advanced sports medicine and training facilities, a gymnasium and aquatic facilities, as well as on-site accommodation for visiting teams, with Brisbane firm Blight Rayner as architects for the project. Ballymore was the planned home venue for Brisbane City's failed bid to join the A-League. In November 2018, a planned friendly football match between

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

and

Uzbekistan Uzbekistan (, ; uz, Ozbekiston, italic=yes / , ; russian: Узбекистан), officially the Republic of Uzbekistan ( uz, Ozbekiston Respublikasi, italic=yes / ; russian: Республика Узбекистан), is a doubly landlocked co ...

had to be moved to QSAC due to the poor state of the pitch. In February 2021 demolition and construction works commenced on the stadium and surrounding precinct, to allow for the creation of the National Rugby Training Centre. The McLean Stand was demolished in February 2021, and will be replaced by the indoor training centre which includes a new grandstand capable of seating 3010 spectators, and also features corporate facilities, a 700 square-metre gym, rehabilitation areas, a 75-seat auditorium, a 120-seat function room, changing rooms and offices. A second rugby field with surrounding offices is included in the masterplan, though has not been constructed. The National Rugby Training Centre will be the headquarters for the

Australia women's national rugby union team The Australia women's national rugby union team, also known as the Wallaroos, has competed at all Women's Rugby World Cups since 1998, with their best result finishing in third place in 2010. Australian women have been playing rugby since th ...

(the Wallaroos) and a training site for the Queensland Reds men's, women's and academy teams.

Rugby World Cup

Ballymore hosted five matches of the

1987 Rugby World Cup The 1987 Rugby World Cup was the first Rugby World Cup. It was co-hosted by New Zealand and Australia – New Zealand hosted 21 matches (17 pool stage matches, two quarter-finals, the third-place play-off and the final) while Australia hosted 11 ...

. These matches were:

References

External links

Ballymore Redevelopment Proposal
*

{{A-League Women stadiums Rugby league stadiums in Australia Rugby union stadiums in Australia Rugby World Cup stadiums Soccer venues in Queensland Sports venues in Brisbane Queensland Reds Sports venues completed in 1966 Herston, Queensland Ballymore Cup A-League Women stadiums 1966 establishments in Australia World Rugby Sevens Series venues Venues of the 2032 Summer Olympics and Paralympics

History

Present use

Rugby World Cup

See also

References

External links