Griqua Park (currently known as Suzuki Stadium for sponsorship reasons)
is an 11,000-capacity
multi-purpose stadium
A multi-purpose stadium is a type of stadium designed to be easily used for multiple types of events. While any stadium could potentially host more than one type of sport or event, this concept usually refers to a design philosophy that stres ...
in
Kimberley
Kimberly or Kimberley may refer to:
Places and historical events
Australia
Queensland
* Kimberley, Queensland, a coastal locality in the Shire of Douglas
South Australia
* County of Kimberley, a cadastral unit in South Australia
Ta ...
, South Africa.
It is mainly used for
rugby union
Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...
matches and it is the home stadium of provincial
Currie Cup
The Currie Cup () is South Africa's premier domestic rugby union competition featuring teams representing either entire provinces or substantial regions within provinces. Although it is the premier domestic competition, four South African franc ...
side . The
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 has previously included teams from Argentina, Japan, and South Africa. Super Rugby started as the S ...
side also played some matches at this ground.
Griquas relocated to the stadium from their former
De Beers Stadium home in 1991, when the stadium was known as Hoffe Park. It was named after Chas Hoffe, the head manager of
Spoornet who owned the ground. Despite initially having only two stands, much ground development was done during the mid-1990s under the leadership of then-president
Andre Markgraaff, increasing the stadium's capacity to 11,000, as well as adding several suites.
Between 1998 and 2008, the stadium had a sponsorship deal with
ABSA Bank, during which time the stadium was known as Absa Park. Between 2009 and 2015, the stadium was known as GWK Park thanks to a sponsorship deal from
Douglas
Douglas may refer to:
People
* Douglas (given name)
* Douglas (surname)
Animals
* Douglas (parrot), macaw that starred as the parrot ''Rosalinda'' in Pippi Longstocking
* Douglas the camel, a camel in the Confederate Army in the American Civil ...
-based agricultural company GWK (Griekwaland-Wes Korporatief), who also became the title sponsor of the Griquas rugby team.
When the sponsorship deal with GWK expired, the stadium became known as Griqua Park.
During the course of the
2010 FIFA world cup
The 2010 FIFA World Cup was the 19th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national Association football, football teams. It took place in South Africa from 11 June to 11 July 2010. ...
, the stadium played host the
Uruguay national football team
The Uruguay national football team (), nicknamed ''La Celeste'' ("The Sky Blue") and ''Los Charrúas'' ("The Charrúa, Charrúas"), have represented Uruguay in international men's Association football, football since their first international m ...
as they chose
Kimberley
Kimberly or Kimberley may refer to:
Places and historical events
Australia
Queensland
* Kimberley, Queensland, a coastal locality in the Shire of Douglas
South Australia
* County of Kimberley, a cadastral unit in South Australia
Ta ...
as their host city. As such the team used the stadium as their training ground while in the city.
References
Rugby union stadiums in South Africa
Multi-purpose stadiums in South Africa
Sports venues in the Northern Cape
Buildings and structures in Kimberley, Northern Cape
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