Leederville Oval (known as Sullivan Logistics Stadium under a

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 ...

agreement) is an

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

ground located in Leederville, a suburb of

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

, Western Australia. The ground is used as a home ground by two clubs: the

East Perth Football Club The East Perth Football Club, nicknamed the Royals, is an Australian rules football club based in Leederville, Western Australia, current playing in the West Australian Football League (WAFL) and WAFL Women's (WAFLW). Formed in 1902 as the Unio ...

and the

Subiaco Football Club The Subiaco Football Club, nicknamed the Lions and known before 1973 as the ''Maroons'', is an Australian rules football club in the West Australian Football League (WAFL) and WAFL Women's (WAFLW). It was founded in 1896, and admitted to the WAF ...

, both competing in the

West Australian Football League The West Australian Football League (WAFL "waffle" or "W-A-F-L") is an Australian rules football league based in Perth, Western Australia. The league currently consists of ten teams, which play each other in a 20-round season usually lasting f ...

(WAFL). The ground was previously home to the

West Perth Football Club The West Perth Football Club, nicknamed the Falcons, is an Australian rules football club located in Joondalup, Western Australia. West Perth competes in the West Australian Football League (WAFL) and WAFL Women's (WAFLW) and is the oldest exis ...

from 1915 to 1993, before the club moved to

Arena Joondalup Arena Joondalup is a multi-purpose sports complex in Joondalup, Western Australia, located on of parkland approximately north of Perth. Opened in 1994, Arena Joondalup is a super complex with many facilities including an outdoor sports grou ...

, its current home ground. The ground is serviced by the

Yanchep line The Yanchep line, formerly the Joondalup line, is a suburban railway line and service in Perth, Western Australia, linking the city's central business district (CBD) with its northern suburbs. Operated by the Public Transport Authority as pa ...

, with the nearest stop being Leederville station.

History

Originally part of a series of interconnected wetlands north of the

Perth central business district Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

, the land now part of the ground was first established as a recreation reserve by the Municipality of Leederville in 1900.A Brief History of the Suburb Leederville
– vincentheritage.com.au. Retrieved 20 November 2011. The ground was opened in July 1915 with a timber and brick

grandstand A grandstand is a normally permanent structure for seating spectators, typically at sports stadiums and including both auto racing and horse racing. The grandstand is in essence like a single section of a stadium, but differs from a stadium i ...

as a purpose-built venue for the

, who had previously shared the

WACA Ground The WACA Ground () is a sports stadium in Perth, Western Australia. The stadium's name derives from the initials of its owners and operators, the Western Australian Cricket Association (WACA). The WACA has been referred to as Western Australia' ...

with the

Perth Football Club The Perth Football Club, nicknamed the Demons, is an Australian rules football club based in Lathlain, Western Australia, Lathlain, Western Australia, currently playing in the West Australian Football League (WAFL) and WAFL Women's (WAFLW). R ...

. The first match was played on 24 July 1915, with defeating West Perth by fifteen points, 10.9 (69) to 6.18 (54). A number of other sports were played at Leederville Oval from the early 1920s to the early 1970s. The Western Australian Amateur Athletic Association leased the ground for a number of years, and the Australian Open Track and Field Championships were held there in 1940 (men's), 1947 (women's), 1953 (men's), 1954 (women's) and 1960 (men's). A

picture theatre A movie theater (American English) or cinema (Commonwealth English), also known as a movie house, cinema hall, picture house, picture theater, the movies, the pictures, or simply theater, is a business that contains auditoriums for viewing fi ...

operated at the ground in 1924. Due to a dispute between the Perth City Council and the WANFL regarding the rental agreement, neither Leederville Oval nor

Perth Oval Perth Rectangular Stadium (also known as HBF Park under naming rights) is a sports stadium in Perth, the capital of the Australian state of Western Australia. Located close to Perth's central business district, the stadium currently has a m ...

were used during the 1940 WANFL season. West Perth were forced to use

Subiaco Oval Subiaco Oval (; nicknamed Subi) was a sports stadium in Perth, Western Australia, located in the suburb of Subiaco, Western Australia, Subiaco. It was opened in 1908 and closed in 2017 after the completion of the new Perth Stadium in Burswood, ...

and the

for the duration of the season. The ground underwent extensive redevelopments beginning in 1958 to allow it to be used as a venue for the

1962 British Empire and Commonwealth Games The 1962 British Empire and Commonwealth Games were held in Perth, Western Australia, from 22 November to 1 December 1962. Athletic events were held at Perry Lakes Stadium in the suburb of Floreat and swimming events at Beatty Park in North ...

in Perth. This involved "shrouding" the timber base of the old grandstand with concrete. The new construction was named the RP Fletcher Stand after the president of the West Perth Football Club from 1946 to 1962. A match between West Perth and East Perth in round 21 of the 1978 season saw 24,567 attend, a ground record. West Perth vacated the ground in 1993, moving to

for the 1994 season. At the last West Perth home game held at the ground, in August 1993 against Subiaco, a crowd of 20,112 people attended. A small number of East Perth and Subiaco home matches were played at the ground after 1994; however, these were not well-attended. With the restructure of the City of Perth in 1994, responsibility for the ground was transferred to the newly formed Town of Vincent. The council's headquarters were located in the Leederville Oval grandstand until its new administrative centre was constructed. The ground hosted two

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 ...

pre-season In an organized sports league, a typical season is the portion of one year in which regulated games of the sport are in session: for example, in Major League Baseball the season lasts approximately from the last week of March to the last week of S ...

matches in February 1995: one between a under-23 and a under-23 side, and one between West Coast and . After the East Perth and Subiaco Football Clubs agreed to move into the ground, in 2003 and 2004 respectively, a A$4 million redevelopment was announced, funded by the State Government and the Town of Vincent. It was also proposed by the Department of Sport and Recreation to move some

interstate The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, commonly known as the Interstate Highway System, or the Eisenhower Interstate System, is a network of controlled-access highways that forms part of the National H ...

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

matches to Leederville Oval from the WACA Ground; however this did not eventuate. In 2006, the Town of Vincent signed a A$250,000

deal with Medibank Private to rename the ground "Medibank Stadium" for three years. This was renewed in 2009. Leederville Oval hosted

(AFL) pre-season matches in 2006 and 2010, featuring and and West Coast and Carlton respectively, and WAFL inter-league matches in 2004, 2009 and 2010. As well as the WAFL Grand Final in 2022VFL demolishes WAFL in State League clash at Leederville Oval
– perthnow.com.au. Published 22 May 2010. Retrieved 20 November 2011.

References

External links

* {{WAFL Women's West Australian Football League grounds Sports venues in Perth, Western Australia East Perth Football Club Subiaco Football Club West Perth Football Club Vincent Street, North Perth AFL Women's grounds Leederville, Western Australia