Viking Park is an 7,000 capacity (1,000 seated) multi-sport stadium located in the

Tuggeranong Valley The District of Tuggeranong () is one of the original eighteen districts of the Australian Capital Territory used in land administration. The district is subdivided into divisions (suburbs), sections and blocks and is the southernmost town cent ...

suburb

Wanniassa Wanniassa () (postcode 2903) is a suburb in Australia's capital, Canberra: more specifically, in the city's southern district of Tuggeranong. The suburb takes its name from a pastoral property granted to Thomas McQuoid in 1835, which he named a ...

Canberra Canberra ( ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The ci ...

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 has a rectangular playing surface which is used primarily to host

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 ...

matches but additionally has hosted

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 ...

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 ...

and

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 ...

. It is home to the Tuggeranong Vikings and all matches of the

ACTRU Premier Division The ACTRU Premier Division is a rugby union club competition based in Canberra Canberra ( ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, ...

finals, the Canberra Vikings who compete in the National Rugby Championship and the Tuggeranong Vikings Baseball Club. Viking Park is also regularly utilised by ACT-based

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 ...

club The Brumbies, who use the venue for training and who used to play home matches in the

Australian Provincial Championship The Australian Provincial Championship, or APC, is a now-defunct rugby union football competition played in Australia. It was one of several provincial competitions since the late 1960s, including the Wallaby Trophy and Ricoh National Champion ...

there.

Stadium Facilities

The $6m complex consists of two grounds, the main ground with the 1,000-seat grand stand and the training ground. State of the art lighting lights up both the main ground and the training ground with the lighting for the main ground meeting TV broadcast requirements and the lighting for the training ground meeting Super Rugby training requirements. There are six large dressing room sheds, first-aid medical room for strapping and massage, canteen, numerous storage facilities and state of the art training equipment for scrum work and contact drills as well as a baseball diamond. There is direct access to the Vikings Erindale Club from the venue.

Primary Use

Viking Park is primarily used as a Rugby Union venue with primary tennents Tuggeranong Vikings playing their home matches in the

and Canberra Vikings playing in the National Rugby Championship (NRC). In the summer months it is converted into a baseball park and serves as the home venue for the highly successful Tuggeranong Vikings Baseball Club.

Events History

2006 Tri-Nations Training Camp

In 2006, the

Wallabies A wallaby () is a small or middle-sized macropod native to Australia and New Guinea, with introduced populations in New Zealand, Hawaii, the United Kingdom and other countries. They belong to the same taxonomic family as kangaroos and som ...

used the ground in preparation for an upcoming game in the Tri Nations against

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island coun ...

. They held an open training session on 10 August 2006 at Viking Park. As part of the training camp, Australia 'A' played a match at Viking Park against Tonga U18s on August 15, 2006.

2008 Women's Rugby International Test Series

7 July 2008, Australian Rugby Union (ARU) announced a twin test match series between the Wallaroos (Australia) and the Black Furns (New Zealand) to be played in Canberra at Viking Park in October 2008. The announced series was the first women's rugby internationals played in Australia since the 2001 Test against

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

in Newcastle. 14 October 2008, In the first test match, Australia started brightly but soon found themselves second best as New Zealand's forward pack led the visitors to run in three tries before half time to take a 19-3 lead into the break. After half time the Black Furns added another two tries to finish the match 37-3 victors. 18 October 2008, the second game on the Saturday night was a lot closer than the opening match a few days earlier. Australia led 10-8 early in the first half before New Zealand scored two tries to fight back into the lead at half time. The match remained tight but New Zealand were too strong for Australia in the end as they won the match 22-16 and clinched the series 2-0.

2014 FFA Cup

22 August 2014, Tuggeranong United drew

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 ...

powerhouse

Melbourne Victory Melbourne Victory Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Melbourne, Victoria. Competing in the country's premier men's competition, the A-League Men, under licence from Australian Professional Leagues (APL), Victory ...

in the round of 16 FFA Cup draw, giving the team from Canberra's south a home 2014 FFA Cup round of 16 match. Tuggeranong United could not use their normal home ground due to its inadequate lighting and facilities so the ACT NPL club announced Viking Park as the venue for the high-profile match. The draw also enabled the opportunity for an emotional homecoming for former Tuggeranong United junior and

Socceroo The Australia men's national soccer team represents Australia in international men's soccer. Officially nicknamed the Socceroos, the team is controlled by the governing body for soccer in Australia, Football Australia, which is affiliated wi ...

midfielder

Carl Valeri Carl may refer to: * Carl, Georgia, city in USA * Carl, West Virginia, an unincorporated community *Carl (name), includes info about the name, variations of the name, and a list of people with the name * Carl², a TV series * "Carl", an episode of ...

. In the lead-up to the Tuesday fixture, Tuggeranong United's players put their day jobs on hold and went into camp at the Alpha Hotel to prepare for the match at Viking Park against the Victory. 16 September 2014, Viking Park hosted its first

match between Tuggeranong United and Melbourne Victory in the 2014 FFA Cup. 5150 people turned out in what was the record breaking crowd for Viking Park until Olympic's 2016 FFA Cup fixture against Sydney FC. Tuggeranong United was put to the sword by a very strong Melbourne Victory team. A-League star and Victory marquee,

Besart Berisha Besart Berisha (born 29 July 1985) is a Kosovan retired professional footballer who played as a striker. Club career Youth and Hamburger SV Berisha began his youth career at German side Berliner VB 49 academies at age of 9. He then moved to var ...

, scored a hat-trick on the night to lead Victory to a 6-0 drubbing of the home team. The venue and match were declared as a success with only one minor hiccup occurring at the match when a Melbourne Victory fan let off a flare. The man was arrested by

ACT Police ACT Policing is the portfolio of the Australian Federal Police (AFP) responsible for providing policing services to the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). The Australian Capital Territory Police was an independent police force responsible for ...

and received a fine and five-year ban.

2016 FFA Cup

29 September 2016, Viking Park was announced as the host venue for the FFA Cup semi-final clash between

Canberra Olympic FC Canberra Olympic FC is an Australian semi-professional Association football club based in the suburb of O'Connor in the north of Canberra, Australian Capital Territory. The club was founded in 1956, and currently competes in the National Premi ...

and

Sydney FC Sydney Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Sydney, New South Wales. It competes in the country's premier men's competition, A-League Men, under licence from Australian Professional Leagues (APL). The club was f ...

after Olympic deemed the financial costs of hosting the game at

Canberra Stadium Canberra Stadium (GIO Stadium for commercial reasons) is a facility primarily used for rugby league and rugby union games, located adjacent to the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra, the capital of Australia. It is the largest sports ven ...

to be too high as well as a better atmosphere at Viking Park being achievable. 19 October 2016, Viking Park played host to an

FFA Cup The Australia Cup, formerly known as the FFA Cup until the 2021 season, is the national football knockout cup competition in Australia. This annual competition is organised by Football Australia, formerly known as Football Federation Austral ...

semi-final for the first time in 2016. Canberra Olympic FC took on

heavyweights Sydney FC after playing the previous three rounds at smaller venue

Deakin Stadium Deakin Stadium is an association football ground located in the south-central Canberra suburb of Deakin, ACT. It is the home ground of Canberra Croatia FC in the NPL ACT. Primary Use Canberra FC are the primary tenants of Deakin Stadium. C ...

. 5,581 turned out to watch the match, which set a new record crowd for Viking Park. Canberra Olympic were the final NPL club left in the competition and they proved good competition for Sydney, especially in the early stages of the match. However, Olympic were not good enough to contain the star-studded Sydney-siders who played all their marquee signings against the Canberrans.

Filip Hološko Filip Hološko (; born 17 January 1984) is a Slovak former professional footballer who played as a forward or winger. Club career Beşiktaş At the mid of 2007–08 season, he was transferred to Beşiktaş JK in exchange of the forward Bura ...

, Bobô and returning

Bernie Ibini all starred for Sydney as they scored three goals to claim a three to nil victory over the home side. And with the loss, Olympic's unlikely dream 2016 FFA Cup run ended at Viking Park.

Records

Record attendance: 5,581 (Canberra Olympic FC vs Sydney FC, 19 October 2016, FFA Cup semi-final)

References

External links

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Vikings Club GroupCanberra Vikings homeTuggeranong Vikings Rugby Club homeTuggeranong Vikings Baseball Club home
{{A-League Women stadiums Sports venues in Canberra Rugby league stadiums in Australia Rugby union stadiums in Australia Soccer venues in Canberra ACT Brumbies A-League Women stadiums