The Ballarat Regional Soccer Facility, also referred to by its location as Morshead Park Stadium, is an

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

- specific stadium in

Redan Redan (a French language, French word for "projection", "salient") is a feature of fortifications. It is a work in a V-shaped Salients, re-entrants and pockets, salient angle towards an expected attack. It can be made from earthworks or other ...

, a suburb immediately to the south of central

Ballarat, Victoria Ballarat ( ) () is a city in the Central Highlands (Victoria), Central Highlands of Victoria, Australia. At the 2021 Australian census, 2021 census, Ballarat had a population of 111,973, making it the third-largest urban inland city in Australi ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. It is the home of the

Ballarat City FC Ballarat City FC is an Australian semi-professional association football club based in Ballarat, Victoria (Australia), Victoria. For most of its history, the club's home ground was Trekardo Park, before making the move to the Ballarat Regional ...

Men's and Women's Team, who play in the

Victorian State League The Victorian State League, known as VETO Sports State League for sponsorship purposes is an Australian soccer league based in Victoria that was founded in 1958 and administered by Football Victoria. It consists of five divisions (separated by ...

, the fifth tier of Australian football league system.

Construction

During 2013, the

City of Ballarat The City of Ballarat is a local government area in the west of the state of Victoria, Australia. It covers an area of and, in June 2023, had a population of 118,137. It is primarily urban with the vast majority of its population living in the ...

Council matched a Federal Government investment of $2.675 million announced by then

Prime Minister of Australia The prime minister of Australia is the head of government of the Commonwealth of Australia. The prime minister is the chair of the Cabinet of Australia and thus the head of the Australian Government, federal executive government. Under the pr ...

Julia Gillard Julia Eileen Gillard (born 29 September 1961) is an Australian former politician who served as the 27th prime minister of Australia from 2010 to 2013. She held office as the leader of the Labor Party (ALP), having previously served as the ...

in June of that year in a major upgrade of Morshead Park with a view to host training for National Teams in the 2015 Asian Cup, including new grandstands, lights and returfing the field to form the Ballarat Regional Soccer Facility. The main grandstand seats 500, with an additional standing capacity for a further 8000 on viewing embankments. There is space for temporary stands to be erected across from the main grandstand to bring the total capacity up to 12,000. Aside from the main pitch, there are two further fully lit football fields adjacent. In total, the facility adds 3,000 pitch hours of availability annually to local clubs.

Tenants

The Ballarat Red Devils played their first game in the stadium on 3 May 2014, losing 1-2 to

South Melbourne FC South Melbourne Football Club is an Australian semi-professional Association football, soccer club based in suburb of Albert Park, Victoria, Albert Park, in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria. The club currently competes in the National P ...

in the NPLV, although the main grandstand was not yet fully complete. South Melbourne player Milos Lujic scored the inaugural goal in the facility. On 9 May 2014,

Premier of Victoria The premier of Victoria is the head of government of the state of Victoria in Australia. The premier leads the Cabinet of Victoria and selects its ministers. The premier is appointed by the governor of Victoria, must be a member of the Vic ...

Denis Napthine announced that the facility would be hosting the

Bahrain national football team The Bahrain national football team () represents Bahrain in international football and is controlled by the Bahrain Football Association, which was founded in 1951 and joined FIFA in 1966. They have never reached the FIFA World Cup, but have t ...

for a sixteen-day training camp prior to the Asian Cup. Western United played an

A-League Men A-League Men, also known as the Isuzu UTE A-League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional Association football, soccer league in Australia and New Zealand and the highest level of the Australian soccer league system. Established in 2004 as ...

match against

Wellington Phoenix Wellington Phoenix Football Club is a professional football club based in Wellington, New Zealand. It competes in the Australian A-League Men, under licence from Football Federation Australia. Phoenix entered the competition in the 2007–08 ...

at Morsehead Park on 9 April 2022.

References

External links

{{National Premier Leagues Victoria stadiums , state=expanded Soccer venues in Melbourne