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Central Coast Stadium is a sports venue in
Gosford Gosford is a waterfront city at the northern end of Brisbane Water on the Central Coast in the state of New South Wales, Australia. The Gosford Waterfront is known for its boating and scenic views on the shores of Brisbane Water. Gosford is ...
, on the Central Coast of
New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...
, Australia. From the establishment of the first venue at the site in 1915 it was known as Waterside Park, being renamed Grahame Park after significant expansion in 1939. Since then it has had several names incorporating that name, but it is called Industree Group Stadium under
naming rights Naming rights are a financial transaction and form of advertising or memorialization where a corporation, person, or other entity purchases the right to name a facility, object, location, program, or event (most often sports venues), typical ...
. The stadium is home to the
Central Coast Mariners Central Coast Mariners Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Gosford, on the Central Coast of New South Wales. It competes in the A-League Men, under licence from the Australian Professional Leagues (APL). The Mar ...
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 ...
club which competes in the
A-League A-League Men, also known as the Isuzu UTE A-League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional soccer league in Australia and New Zealand and the highest level of the Australian soccer league system. Established in 2004 as the A-League by the ...
. The stadium also hosts
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 ...
and
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 ...
fixtures on an ad hoc basis as well as other major social events. The stadium was originally designed to be the home stadium for the
North Sydney Bears The North Sydney Bears are an Australian rugby league football club based in Cammeray on Sydney's North Shore (Sydney), North Shore. The club currently competes in the NSW Cup, having exited the National Rugby League following the 1999 NRL s ...
rugby league football club.


History

In 1911, Erina Shire Council proposed to create a park on the shore of
Brisbane Water Brisbane Water is a wave-dominated barrier estuary located in the Central Coast region of New South Wales, Australia. Brisbane Water has its origin at the confluence of the Narara and Coorumbine Creeks, to the south–east of Gosford and trav ...
. The park required much land to be reclaimed from marshland. It also required privately-owned land to be purchased by the council and a section of road to be demolished. Waterside Park was opened in 1915 and a
cricket pitch A cricket pitch is the rectangular central strip of a cricket field between the two wickets, where most of the action takes place. It is long (1 Chain (unit), chain) and wide. The surface is flat and is normally covered with extremely sh ...
was added during that year. Further reclamation of the foreshore extended the park during
the Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...
that gave work to the unemployed. By 1939 surplus railway land had been added and a bowling club and green, as well as tennis courts, had been constructed. In 1939 the park was renamed Grahame Park, after the then mayor of
Gosford Gosford is a waterfront city at the northern end of Brisbane Water on the Central Coast in the state of New South Wales, Australia. The Gosford Waterfront is known for its boating and scenic views on the shores of Brisbane Water. Gosford is ...
, William Calman Grahame. A full stadium was then touted and later built in the late 1990s, planned to be ready in 1999 for NRL club the
North Sydney Bears The North Sydney Bears are an Australian rugby league football club based in Cammeray on Sydney's North Shore (Sydney), North Shore. The club currently competes in the NSW Cup, having exited the National Rugby League following the 1999 NRL s ...
, before construction problems including large spells of inclement weather delayed completion. The stadium finally opened in early 2000 as NorthPower Stadium at Grahame Park, the
Northern Eagles The Northern Eagles were a rugby league team that competed in the National Rugby League (NRL) between 2000 and 2002. The club was formed during the rationalisation process of the NRL by forming a joint venture with the North Sydney Bears and th ...
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 ...
team (a merging of the aforementioned Bears and the
Manly Warringah Sea Eagles The Manly Warringah Sea Eagles are an Australian professional rugby league club based in Sydney's Northern Beaches. They compete in the National Rugby League (NRL). The Manly club debuted in the 1947 New South Wales Rugby Football League seaso ...
) taking residence there until their dissolving after the 2002 season. In 2003, with no major sporting team in residence, the stadium played host to three group matches in the
2003 Rugby World Cup The 2003 Rugby World Cup was the fifth Rugby World Cup and was won by England national rugby union team, England. Originally planned to be co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand, all games were shifted to Australia following a contractual dispu ...
. The
Pacific Islanders rugby union team The Pacific Islanders was a combined international rugby union team that played from 2004 to 2008. It represented Fiji national rugby union team, Fiji, Samoa national rugby union team, Samoa and Tonga national rugby union team, Tonga; Niue Rugby Un ...
played one match at the stadium on their 2004 tour. The stadium gained its second full-time tenant in 2005 with the formation of the
Central Coast Mariners Central Coast Mariners Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Gosford, on the Central Coast of New South Wales. It competes in the A-League Men, under licence from the Australian Professional Leagues (APL). The Mar ...
, a team in the newly formed national
A-League A-League Men, also known as the Isuzu UTE A-League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional soccer league in Australia and New Zealand and the highest level of the Australian soccer league system. Established in 2004 as the A-League by the ...
football competition. It became the first full-time national sporting competition to have a team play at the stadium. Further use of the stadium in 2006 follows from it being the home ground to the Central Coast Waves
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 ...
team, which joined the Shute Shield in 2006. The stadium continues to host NRL competition matches from time to time, as well as a some pre-season trials. The Central Coast Rays, the Central Coasts' Australian Rugby Championship team, played out of the stadium during the only season of the competition in 2007. The stadium continued as a home to the Mariners A-League side , and hosted NRL matches throughout the 2008 Centenary Year. In 2014, the
NSW Country Eagles The New South Wales Country Eagles is an Australian rugby union football team competes in the National Rugby Championship (NRC). The team was founded by a group of patrons associated with country rugby in New South Wales. The Eagles team plays ...
hosted a
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 ...
match at Central Coast. In recent years the
Sydney Roosters Eastern Suburbs District Rugby League Football Club, known as the Sydney Roosters are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Sydney's Eastern Suburbs (Sydney), Eastern Suburbs. The club competes in the National Rugby Lea ...
have hosted one NRL game per season at Central Coast Stadium; other clubs such as the
South Sydney Rabbitohs The South Sydney District Rugby League Football Club, also known as the South Sydney Rabbitohs, is an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the Sydney suburb of Maroubra, New South Wales, Maroubra that competes in the Nat ...
,
Wests Tigers The Wests Tigers is an Australian professional rugby league football team, based in the Inner West of Sydney and South Western Sydney. The Tigers have competed in the National Rugby League (NRL) since being formed at the end of the 1999 N ...
,
Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles The Manly Warringah Sea Eagles are an Australian professional rugby league club based in Sydney's Northern Beaches. They compete in the National Rugby League (NRL). The Manly club debuted in the 1947 New South Wales Rugby Football League sea ...
and
Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs The Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs are an Australian professional rugby league club based in Belmore, a suburb in the Canterbury-Bankstown region of Sydney. They compete in the NRL Telstra Premiership, as well as competitions facilitated by ...
have also taken games to the Central Coast. In 2004, Central Coast Stadium played host to two
North Queensland Cowboys The North Queensland Cowboys is an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Townsville, the largest city in North Queensland. They compete in Australia's premier rugby league competition, the National Rugby League (NRL). Sinc ...
matches, the first of which resulted in a historic 20–20 draw with wooden spooners South Sydney, the first such result since
golden point The golden point, a sudden death overtime system, is used to resolve drawn matches in a number of sports. The term is borrowed from soccer's now-defunct golden goal. Rugby league Australia The golden point is used to determine a winner (where a ...
was introduced in 2003. A photo taken at the stadium appeared in a Season 5 episode of the U.S. TV series
The Office ''The Office'' is the title of several mockumentary sitcoms based on a British series originally created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant as '' The Office'' in 2001. The original series also starred Gervais as manager and primary charac ...
. As described by
reddit Reddit ( ) is an American Proprietary software, proprietary social news news aggregator, aggregation and Internet forum, forum Social media, social media platform. Registered users (commonly referred to as "redditors") submit content to the ...
user kiasam111, new boss Charles (
Idris Elba Idrissa Akuna Elba Order of the British Empire, OBE ( ; born 6 September 1972) is an English actor and musician. He has received a Golden Globe Award as well as nominations for three BAFTA Awards and six Primetime Emmy Awards, Emmy Awards. He w ...
) walks out of his office to find Andy (
Ed Helms Edward Parker Helms (born January 24, 1974) is an American actor, musician and comedian. From 2002 to 2006, he was a correspondent on Comedy Central's '' The Daily Show with Jon Stewart''. He played paper salesman Andy Bernard in the NBC sit ...
) looking at what appears to be a screen-saver with a series of photos of football. A photo appears of two players, taken from an
A-League A-League Men, also known as the Isuzu UTE A-League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional soccer league in Australia and New Zealand and the highest level of the Australian soccer league system. Established in 2004 as the A-League by the ...
game between Central Coast Mariners and
Perth Glory Perth Glory Football Club is an Australian professional Association football, soccer club based in Perth, Perth, Western Australia. It competes in the country's premier men's competition, A-League Men, under Professional sports league organi ...
, played at Bluetongue Stadium on 31 December 2008. The players in the photo (taken by Corey Davis of Getty Images) are
Marc Anthony Marco Antonio Muñiz (born September 16, 1968), known professionally as Marc Anthony, is an American singer and actor. He is the top selling salsa artist of all time. A four-time Grammy Award, eight-time Latin Grammy Award and twenty-nine-tim ...
(Perth) and Matthew Osman (Central Coast).
In the
2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...
, and the first four months of the
2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...
NRL seasons, the ground was used as a temporary home ground for the
New Zealand Warriors The Warriors are a professional rugby league football club based in Auckland, New Zealand that competes in the National Rugby League (NRL) premiership and is the League's only team from outside Australia. They were formed in 1995 as the Aucklan ...
, due to border restrictions between Australia and New Zealand which prevented the club from travelling freely between the two countries during 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 ...
. VenuesLive took over the management of the ground from the Central Coast Council on 1 July 2022, and Industree Group acquired naming right on 14 November 2022.


Name changes

There have been several name changes since the Stadium was built, primarily reactions relating to sponsorship: * Waterside Park, from 1915 * Grahame Park, from 1939 * NorthPower Stadium at Grahame Park, from January 2000 * Central Coast Stadium at Grahame Park, from 23 September 2002 * Central Coast Express Advocate Stadium at Grahame Park, from 11 February 2003 * Central Coast Stadium at Grahame Park, from 21 March 2005 * Central Coast Bluetongue Stadium at Grahame Park, from 28 March 2006 * Central Coast Stadium at Grahame Park, from 25 January 2014 * Industree Group Stadium, from 14 November 2022


Description

The stadium is rectangular and unusual in that seating is located on only three sides of the ground. The southern end is open giving filtered views of
Brisbane Water Brisbane Water is a wave-dominated barrier estuary located in the Central Coast region of New South Wales, Australia. Brisbane Water has its origin at the confluence of the Narara and Coorumbine Creeks, to the south–east of Gosford and trav ...
through a row of palm trees. With an all seater capacity of 20,059, it was the second smallest stadium in the
A-League A-League Men, also known as the Isuzu UTE A-League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional soccer league in Australia and New Zealand and the highest level of the Australian soccer league system. Established in 2004 as the A-League by the ...
. It is within walking distance of the Gosford CBD and Gosford railway station. The Central Coast Leagues Club and League Club Field are adjacent to the stadium, across Dane Drive.


Transport

Gosford railway station is nearby. The station is served by the
Central Coast & Newcastle Line The Central Coast & Newcastle Line (CCN) is an regional rail, intercity rail service that services the Upper North Shore, Central Coast (New South Wales), Central Coast and Newcastle, New South Wales, Newcastle regions. It connects the two large ...
and a small number of long-distance services.


Osprey nest

There is a nest of
eastern osprey The eastern osprey (''Pandion haliaetus cristatus'') is a Diurnality, diurnal, piscivore, fish-eating bird of prey. They live in Oceania at coastal regions of the Australian continent, the Indonesian islands, New Guinea, and the Philippines. It ...
s, a
vulnerable species A vulnerable species is a species which has been Conservation status, categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as being threatened species, threatened with extinction unless the circumstances that are threatened species, ...
of bird, nesting in one of the light towers. The breeding pair produced chicks every year from 2016 until July 2023, when a video of the osprey family was posted on Facebook. The parents were named Rosie and Hutch by patrons of the stadium.


Attendance records

Record crowds for different sports:


Rugby league test matches

The stadium has hosted one rugby league international.Central Coast Stadium results @ Rugby League Project
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Rugby World Cup

The stadium hosted three games of the
2003 Rugby World Cup The 2003 Rugby World Cup was the fifth Rugby World Cup and was won by England national rugby union team, England. Originally planned to be co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand, all games were shifted to Australia following a contractual dispu ...
which was held in Australia.


See also

*
List of soccer stadiums in Australia This is a list of Association football, soccer stadiums in Australia, ranked in descending order of Seating capacity, capacity. There is an extremely large number of soccer stadiums and pitches in Australia, and a definitive list of stadium would ...
*
Lists of stadiums The following are lists of stadiums throughout the world. Note that horse racing and motorsport venues are not included at some pages, because those are not stadiums but sports venues. Combined lists *List of stadiums by capacity * List of c ...


References


External links


Official website for Central Coast StadiumNational Rugby LeagueA-League FootballCentral Coast Mariners
* {{2008 RLWC Venues Central Coast Mariners FC A-League Men stadiums A-League Women stadiums Rugby league stadiums in Australia Rugby union stadiums in Australia Sports venues in New South Wales Northern Eagles North Sydney Bears 2000 establishments in Australia Sports venues completed in 2000 New South Wales Waratahs Sport on the Central Coast (New South Wales) Gosford