Sydney Entertainment Centre, later known as Qantas Credit Union Arena, was a multi-purpose arena located in Haymarket,

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 ...

, Australia. It opened in May 1983, to replace

Sydney Stadium The Sydney Stadium was a sporting and entertainment venue in Sydney, which formerly stood on the corner of New South Head Road and Neild Avenue, Rushcutters Bay. Built in 1908, it was demolished in 1970 to make way for the construction of ...

, which had been demolished in 1970 to make way for the

Eastern Suburbs railway line The Eastern Suburbs Railway (ESR) is a commuter railway line in Sydney constructed in the 1970s. It is operated by Sydney Trains and has stations at Martin Place, Kings Cross, Edgecliff and Bondi Junction. In addition, it has dedicated platf ...

. The centre was owned by the

Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority (SHFA) was a statutory authority that owned and managed some of the Government of New South Wales most significant Sydney harbour foreshore assets, including Sydney, Sydney's heritage and cultural precincts at ...

, which administered the neighbouring

Darling Harbour Darling Harbour is a harbour and neighborhood adjacent to the city centre of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, that is made up of a large recreational and pedestrian precinct that is situated on western outskirts of the Sydney central busines ...

area, and managed under a lease. It was one of Sydney's larger concert venues, licensed to accommodate over 13,000 people as a conventional theatre or 8,000 as a

theatre-in-the-round Theatre-in-the-round, also known as arena theatre or central staging, is a theatrical stage configuration in which the audience surrounds the performance area on all sides. Historically rooted in ancient Greece and Rome performance practices, ...

. It was the largest permanent concert venue in Sydney until 1999, when the

Sydney SuperDome The Sydney SuperDome (currently known as the Qudos Bank Arena for sponsorship reasons) is a multipurpose arena located in Sydney Olympic Park suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It was completed in 1999 as part of the facilities for th ...

opened at

Sydney Olympic Park Sydney Olympic Park is a suburb of Greater Western Sydney, located 13 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district, in the Local government in Australia, local government area of the City of Parramatta, City of Parramatta Council. It i ...

. The venue averaged attendances of 1 million people each year and hosted concerts, family shows, sporting events and corporate events. It closed the month before its demolition in January 2016.

Construction

Sydney Entertainment Centre was built by

John Holland Group The John Holland Group is an infrastructure, building, rail and transport business operating in Australia and New Zealand. Headquartered in Melbourne, it is a subsidiary of China Communications Construction. History The company was founded in ...

and opened in 1983.

Notable events

In December 1983,

Cold Chisel Cold Chisel are an Australian Pub rock (Australia), pub rock band, which formed in Adelaide in 1973 by mainstay members Ian Moss on guitar and vocals, Steve Prestwich on drums, Les Kaczmarek on bass and Don Walker (musician), Don Walker on pia ...

played its final ''

Last Stand A last stand, or final stand, is a military situation in which a body of troops holds a defensive position in the face of overwhelming and virtually insurmountable odds. Troops may make a last stand due to a sense of duty; because they are d ...

'' concert. On 20 December 2003, children's music group

The Wiggles The Wiggles are an Australian children's music group formed in Sydney in 1991. As of 2022, the group members are Anthony Field, Lachlan Gillespie, Simon Pryce, Tsehay Hawkins, Evie Ferris, John Pearce (entertainer), John Pearce, Caterina Mete ...

performed at the SEC as the closing act of their Lights, Camera, Action! tour. The performance was recorded for video under the title

Live Hot Potatoes! ''Live Hot Potatoes!'' is the first live concert album released by Australian children's music group, the Wiggles. It was released in 2005 in Australia by ABC Music, distributed by Roadshow Entertainment. It won the ARIA Music Award for Best ...

and was released in the US and Australia in 2005.

Elton John Sir Elton Hercules John (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight; 25 March 1947) is a British singer, songwriter and pianist. His music and showmanship have had a significant, lasting impact on the music industry, and his songwriting partnership with l ...

has played numerous concerts there over the years, including twelve dates in 1986 with an orchestra at Haymarket Arena. The latter shows were the last he performed prior to throat surgery. He has played 46 shows at the venue and was final artist to perform at the venue before its demolition in December 2015.

David Bowie David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer, songwriter and actor. Regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Bowie was acclaimed by critics and musicians, pa ...

played at the venue for a week in November 1987 during his worldwide

Glass Spider Tour The Glass Spider Tour was a 1987 worldwide concert tour by the English musician David Bowie, launched in support of his album ''Never Let Me Down'' and named for that album's track "Glass Spider". It began in May 1987 and was preceded by a two ...

, and performances from several nights were included on video and CD on ''

Glass Spider ''Glass Spider'' is a concert film by English singer David Bowie. The release was sourced from eight shows during the first two weeks of November 1987 at the Sydney Entertainment Centre in Australia during the last month of the Glass Spider To ...

'' (1988).

Sporting events

As a sporting venue, the SEC was best known as the home venue of the

Sydney Kings The Sydney Kings are an Australian men's professional basketball team competing in the National Basketball League (Australia), National Basketball League (NBL). The team is based in Sydney, New South Wales, and play their home games at Qudos Ba ...

who play in the National Basketball League (NBL) over 3 stints. The Kings moved from the smaller (5,006 capacity)

State Sports Centre The State Sports Centre (known commercially as the Quaycentre) is a multi-use indoor arena in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia and was opened in November 1984. With a total of 3,854 fixed and retractable seats the main arena is a focal point ...

Homebush Bay Homebush Bay is a bay on the south bank of the Parramatta River, in the west of Sydney, Australia. The name is also sometimes used to refer to an area to the west and south of the bay itself, which was formerly an official suburb of Sydney, a ...

in 1990 and remained until moving to the Super Dome in 1999. The Kings then returned to the SEC in 2002 and would enjoy immediate success winning the NBL championship in 2002–03, 2003–04 and 2004–05. The team remained until 2008 when they folded due to financial difficulties, but when the club returned to the NBL in 2010 they again made the SEC their home which lasted until the centre's closing in 2015. In 1995, the Entertainment Centre hosted Game 4 of a 5-game international

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

series between the

Australian Boomers The Australia men's national basketball team, nicknamed the Boomers after the slang term for a male kangaroo, represents Australia in international basketball competition. Since the late 1980s, Australia has placed among the world elite teams, ...

and the Magic Johnson All-Stars in front of a sellout crowd of almost 12,000 fans. Despite the All-Stars being a collection of former

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...

players, and with Magic Johnson not playing due to a calf injury, the crowd was actually behind the All-Stars on the night. They were treated to a game that went into overtime with the All-Stars keeping their unbeaten record intact with a 97–94 win. Before the game Magic Johnson apologised to the fans from centre court for not being able to play and called the SEC ''"A good sized gym that they can be proud of"''. Other sports such as

boxing Boxing is a combat sport and martial art. Taking place in a boxing ring, it involves two people – usually wearing protective equipment, such as boxing glove, protective gloves, hand wraps, and mouthguards – throwing Punch (combat), punch ...

professional wrestling Professional wrestling, often shortened to either pro wrestling or wrestling,The term "wrestling" is most often widely used to specifically refer to modern scripted professional wrestling, though it is also used to refer to Real life, real- ...

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

and indoor motor-cross have also been held. Australian boxer

Jeff Fenech Jeff Fenech (born 28 May 1964) is an Australians, Australian former professional boxer who competed between 1984 and 2008. He List of boxing triple champions, won world titles in three weight divisions, having held the International Boxing Feder ...

won a number of World title matches at the centre during the 1980s, While in July 2011, the IBO Cruiser-weight title match between

Antonio Tarver Antonio Deon Tarver (born November 21, 1968) is an American former professional boxer and boxing commentator. In boxing he competed from 1997 to 2015, and held multiple light heavyweight world championships, including the WBA (Unified), WBC, ...

and Danny Green took place at the SEC. The SEC hosted the

1991 World Netball Championships The 1991 World Netball Championships (also known as the Johnson & Johnson World Netball Championship for sponsorship reasons) was the eighth edition of the INF Netball World Cup, a quadrennial premier event in international netball. It was held in ...

, as well as games during the 1994 FIBA Women's World Championship including all Finals games and 3rd place playoff game. At the

2000 Summer Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad, officially branded as Sydney 2000, and also known as the Games of the New Millennium, were an international multi-sport event held from 15 September to 1 October ...

, the SEC was one of two venues for volleyball tournament. Further, the facility co-hosted the

FIBA Oceania Championship FIBA Oceania Championship was the Oceania basketball championships that took place every two years between national teams of the continent. It was also the qualifying tournament for the Basketball World Cups and Olympic Games. The first editio ...

in 2007 and 2011. Both times, the

Australian national basketball team The Australia men's national basketball team, nicknamed the Boomers after the slang term for a male kangaroo, represents Australia in international basketball competition. Since the late 1980s, Australia has placed among the world elite teams, ...

won the gold medal.

Closure

As part of a redevelopment of the Darling Harbour precinct, the Sydney Entertainment Centre was planned to be demolished in 2013, along with the surrounding buildings, but was granted a reprieve. The final concerts were played by

and

on the weekend of 18/19 December 2015. Demolition began in January 2016.The Darling Square residential development replaced the centre. Replacement facilities were built closer towards the

harbour A harbor (American English), or harbour (Commonwealth English; see American and British English spelling differences#-our, -or, spelling differences), is a sheltered body of water where ships, boats, and barges can be Mooring, moored. The t ...

surrounding the Darling Quarter, the nearby 9,000-seat

International Convention Centre Sydney The International Convention Centre Sydney (ICC Sydney) is an exhibition and convention centre which opened in December 2016, in Sydney, Australia. ICC Sydney has over 70 meeting rooms, three theatres and two formal ballrooms. ICC Sydney in ...

Theatre, as part of a $3 billion redevelopment of Darling Harbour. It also contains an exhibition centre and convention centre. The opening of the new facilities occurred in late 2016.

References

Bibliography

External links

* * {{Authority control Event venues established in 1983 1983 establishments in Australia Sports venues in Sydney Music venues in Sydney Defunct basketball venues in Australia Defunct National Basketball League (Australia) venues Tennis venues in Australia Boxing venues in Australia Volleyball venues in Australia Olympic volleyball venues Venues of the 2000 Summer Olympics Sydney Kings Sydney Uni Flames 2015 disestablishments in Australia Sports venues demolished in 2016 Haymarket, New South Wales Demolished buildings and structures in Sydney Defunct indoor arenas in Australia Demolished sports venues Former music venues in Australia