Endeavour Field, known colloquially as Shark Park or Sharks Stadium, is a

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...

stadium in the southern

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

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 Sutherland Shire is a local government area (LGA) in the southern region of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Sutherland Shire is located approximately south-southwest of the Sydney CBD, and comprises an area of . As at the ...

areas in the

National Rugby League The National Rugby League (also known as the NRL Telstra Premiership for sponsorship reasons) is a professional rugby league competition in Oceania which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria (state), Victoria, the Austral ...

competition. The Sharks are as of 2023 just one of two professional sporting clubs in Australia (excluding the

Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the pre-eminent professional sports, professional competition of Australian rules football. It was originally named the Victorian Football League (VFL) and was founded in 1896 as a breakaway competition ...

's ownership of

Docklands Stadium Docklands Stadium, known by naming rights sponsorship as Marvel Stadium, is a multi-purpose sports and entertainment stadium in the suburb of Docklands, Victoria, Docklands in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Construction started in October 199 ...

) that own and operate their home ground (alongside the

Dolphins A dolphin is an aquatic mammal in the cetacean clade Odontoceti (toothed whale). Dolphins belong to the families Delphinidae (the oceanic dolphins), Platanistidae (the Indian river dolphins), Iniidae (the New World river dolphins), Pontopori ...

via their parent club Redcliffe who compete in the QRL with their home ground, Kayo Stadium) as well as Western United's future home ground Wyndham City Stadium. The Sharkies Leagues Club sits beside the stadium.

History

The stadium was built in 1966 and currently has a capacity of 20,000. In 1991 the original western grandstand was demolished and the new Endeavour Stand was built in its place for the 1992 season. The Cronulla-Sutherland Rugby League Club owns the stadium as well as the adjacent Leagues Club, one of only two

NRL The National Rugby League (also known as the NRL Telstra Premiership for sponsorship reasons) is a professional rugby league competition in Oceania which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria (state), Victoria, the Austral ...

clubs to own its own stadium. State government authorities and local councils generally own sporting venues in Australia. On 21 April 2006 the Federal Government announced a A$9.6 million grant 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 (originally the Endeavour 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 has been undergoing redevelopment, with the Leagues Club closing its operations 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 and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

impacting construction timelines at the Leagues Club site, the completion date has been delayed to early 2023, but Cronulla returned to playing home games at the stadium in 2022 with a temporary capacity of 12,000 in place until mid-2023. Further delays in construction resulted in a new completion date of mid-2024 announced in July 2023.

Ground usage

Rugby league

In the

competition, the

Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks The Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks are an Australian professional rugby league club based in the Sutherland Shire of Southern Sydney, Southern Sydney, New South Wales. Cronulla compete in the National Rugby League (NRL), Australasia's premier rugb ...

team has been playing at this venue since midway through the 1968 NSWRFL season, which was the club's second season into the competition (they had previously played at Sutherland Oval from 1967 until 1968). High turnout in crowd numbers are usual when Cronulla play local-derby rivals, the

St George Illawarra Dragons The St. George Illawarra Dragons are an Australian professional rugby league football club, representing both the Illawarra and St George regions of New South Wales. The club has competed in the National Rugby League (NRL) since 1999 after a j ...

. 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 tournament. It played host to the group stages and semi-finals matches. 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,

WIN Stadium Wollongong Showground, known as WIN Stadium for sponsorship reasons, is a multi-purpose stadium located in Wollongong, Australia. The stadium was officially opened in 1911. From 1982 until 1998 it played host to every home match for the Illawa ...

and the new

Western Sydney Stadium Western Sydney Stadium, currently known as CommBank Stadium for sponsorship reasons, is a multi-purpose stadium in the suburb of Parramatta, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It replaced the demolished Parramatta Stadium (1986) which in turn ...

as new temporary home grounds.

Soccer

The

Sydney Olympic FC Sydney Olympic Football Club is an Australian semi-professional soccer club, based in Belmore, Sydney, New South Wales, that plays in the National Premier Leagues NSW. The club was founded as Pan-Hellenic Soccer Club in 1957 by Greek immigrant ...

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 ...

Naming rights

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