Brisbane Stadium (Lang Park), currently known as Suncorp Stadium for sponsorship reasons, is a

multi-purpose stadium A multi-purpose stadium is a type of stadium designed to be easily used for multiple types of events. While any stadium could potentially host more than one type of sport or event, this concept usually refers to a design philosophy that stres ...

in the suburb of Milton,

Brisbane Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

, Australia. Nicknamed The Cauldron, it is a three-tiered rectangular sporting stadium with a capacity of 52,500. The traditional home of

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 ...

in Brisbane, the modern stadium is also now used for

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 ...

and

soccer 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 ...

and has a rectangular

playing field Play is a range of Motivation#Intrinsic and extrinsic, intrinsically motivated activities done for recreation. Play is commonly associated with children and juvenile-level activities, but may be engaged in at any life stage, and among other high ...

of . The stadium's major tenants are the

Brisbane Broncos The Brisbane Broncos are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Red Hill, a suburb of Brisbane, Queensland. Founded in April 1987, the Broncos compete in the National Rugby League (NRL) and play their home games at ...

, 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 ...

, the Brisbane Roar, the

Queensland Maroons The Queensland rugby league team represents the Australian state of Queensland in rugby league football. Nicknamed the "Maroons" after the colour of their jersey, they play three times a year against arch-rivals New South Wales rugby league tea ...

and the

Queensland Reds The Queensland Reds is the rugby union team based in Brisbane for the Australian state of Queensland that competes in the Southern Hemisphere's Super Rugby competition. Prior to 1996, they were a representative team selected from the rugby union ...

. Lang Park was established in 1914, on the site of the former North Brisbane Cemetery; in its early days it was home to a number of different sports, including cycling, athletics and soccer. The lease of the park was taken over by the

Brisbane Rugby League The Brisbane Rugby League premiership was a rugby league football competition in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It was first held in 1922 and for every year until 1997. The competition was reinstated in Brisbane Rugby League (2001), 2001, kno ...

in 1957, before it became the home of the game in Queensland (remaining so to this day). It has also been the home ground of major rugby union and soccer matches in Queensland since its modern redevelopment, including the

and the Brisbane Roar, as well as some Wallabies, Matildas and Socceroos matches. It hosted the

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

and 2017 Rugby League World Cup finals, besides the 2021 NRL Grand Final. In addition to this, the ground hosted

Rugby World Cup The Men's Rugby World Cup is a rugby union tournament contested every four years between the top international teams, the winners of which are recognised as the World championship, world champions of the sport. The tournament is administer ...

quarter finals and two

Super Rugby Super Rugby is a men's professional rugby union club competition involving teams from Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands. It has previously included teams from Argentina, Japan, and South Africa. Super Rugby started as the S ...

grand finals, with the

winning on both occasions. The venue hosted several matches for the

2023 FIFA Women's World Cup The 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup was the ninth edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup, the quadrennial international women's association football, football championship contested by List of women's national association football teams, women's nat ...

including the third-place match, and will host the rugby sevens and soccer tournaments at the

2032 Summer Olympics The 2032 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXXV Olympiad and also known as Brisbane 2032 or Bris2032, is an upcoming international multi-sport event scheduled to take place from 23 July to 8 August 2032, with Brisbane, Queensland, ...

, including the gold medal matches in both the men's and women's soccer events.

History

Origins

The site of Lang Park was originally the North Brisbane Cemetery, and until 1875 was Brisbane's primary

cemetery A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite, graveyard, or a green space called a memorial park or memorial garden, is a place where the remains of many death, dead people are burial, buried or otherwise entombed. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek ...

. By 1911, the area was heavily populated, so the Paddington Cemeteries Act (1911) was introduced, and the site was redeveloped as a recreational site. In 1914, it was fenced off and named Lang Park after

John Dunmore Lang John Dunmore Lang (25 August 1799 – 8 August 1878) was a Scottish-born Australian Presbyterian minister, writer, historian, politician and activist. He was the first prominent advocate of an independent Australian nation and of Australian rep ...

. The ground was leased by the Queensland Amateur Athletics Association (QAAA) in the 1920s. In 1935, the Queensland Soccer Council (QSC) became a sub-tenant of the QAAA, with a view to using it as the home ground for Brisbane soccer fixtures (leaving its former home, the Brisbane Cricket Ground). The Latrobe Soccer Club, in turn, became a sub-tenant of the QSC, using the ground for its home games (see image below). However, by 1937, the QSC was considering sub-leasing Lang Park to "another code of football" (most likely Western Suburbs Rugby League) as it "was not satisfied with the financial returns ... under the sub-lease to the Latrobe-Milton club". Latrobe in turn responded that "'If no action Is taken to introduce the Ipswich clubs into the Brisbane competition this' season ... the Latrobe-Milton Club cannot accept an increase in rental for Lang Park. Give us competition play with Ipswich and my club will hold the ground as headquarters for the code." On 11 February 1950, the official opening of the Lang Park Police Citizens Youth Club took place and youth activities commenced because of the concerns with the increase of juvenile delinquency. Activities such as boxing, wrestling, basketball and gymnastics all occur at these premises to this day. Contemporaneous records are scant, but it appears the QSC did not renew the lease the ground after the intervening World War II. In 1953 the

(BRL) amalgamated with the

Queensland Rugby League The Queensland Rugby Football League QRL Constitution, 2009: 3 (QRL QRL Constitution, 2009: 2) is the governing body for rugby league in Queensland. It is a member of the Australian Rugby League Commission (ARL Commission) and selects the mem ...

(QRL). QRL secretary Ron McAullife negotiated a 21-year lease of Lang Park from the Brisbane City Council in order to give the QRL a financially viable base of operations. The park had only the most basic facilities, and the QRL contributed £17,000 to its development. Lang Park hosted its first game of first grade rugby league during the 1930s, with regular BRL games commencing there in 1955. In 1958, it hosted its first Brisbane rugby league grand final in which

Brothers A brother (: brothers or brethren) is a man or boy who shares one or more parents with another; a male sibling. The female counterpart is a sister. Although the term typically refers to a familial relationship, it is sometimes used endearingl ...

defeated Valleys 22 points to 7. A record crowd of 19,824 saw Northern Suburbs defeat Fortitude Valley at Lang Park in the BRL grand final in September 1961. In the 1960s, Fonda Metassa famously burst from the back of an ambulance to return to the field after being carted off injured in a match for Norths against Redcliffe. As the ground was used increasingly by the QRL, it became no longer viable for use as a public recreation facility due to spoilage of the running track. In 1962, the Lang Park Trust was created under an act of

Parliament In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

. This allowed for the construction of the Frank Burke Stand (1962), Ron McAuliffe Stand (1975), and the Western Grandstand (1994). The Trust had on its board one member from the

Queensland Government The Queensland Government is the state government of Queensland, Australia, a Parliament, parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Government is formed by the party or coalition that has gained a majority in the Queensland Legislative Assembly, ...

, one member from the Brisbane City Council, two members from the

and one member from the

. From the 1960s, Lang Park hosted interstate and international rugby league, including the inaugural State of Origin match. Up until 1972, it was the home ground of the Western Suburbs Panthers.

NSWRL/ARL years

In 1988, the

entered the

NSWRL Premiership The New South Wales Rugby League premiership was the first rugby league football club competition established in Australia and contributor to today's National Rugby League. Run by the New South Wales Rugby League (initially named the New Sout ...

along with the Gold Coast Chargers and the Newcastle Knights. The Broncos played out of Lang Park from 1988 until 1992, when they moved to the 60,000 capacity ANZ Stadium, the stadium for the 1982 Commonwealth Games. The move occurred due to a dispute over the Broncos sponsor, Power's Brewery, being a competitor of the QRL's sponsor XXXX. In 1994, the stadium's name was changed to Suncorp Stadium, when naming sponsorship was attained by Queensland financial institution,

Suncorp Suncorp Group Limited, known simply as Suncorp, is an Australian finance, insurance and banking corporation based in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It was formed on 1 December 1996 by the merger of Suncorp, Metway Bank and the Queensland Ind ...

. Also in 1994, the Western Stand was built, replacing the Frank Burke Stand. On 25 May 1997, the 1996/1997

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 ...

Grand final was played in front of then a capacity crowd of 40,446, where the Brisbane Strikers FC defeated Sydney United FC 2–0.

Redevelopment

Lang Park was heavily redeveloped in the early 2000s into a 52,500 all-seater state of the art rectangular stadium. Suncorpstadium071006

Lang Park suffered significant damage during the

2010–2011 Queensland floods A series of floods hit Queensland, Australia, beginning in December 2010. The floods forced the evacuation of thousands of people from towns and cities. At least 90 towns and over 200,000 people were affected. Damage initially was estimated at A ...

with the entire playing field being covered by flood water. An electrical fire started in a transformer room due to water ingress, however there was no major damage from the fire.

Today

Although the stadium has been the traditional home of

in Queensland, it has also become the state's premier venue for

, as well as

. The re-developed stadium first hosted rugby union games at 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 ...

and in 2005, the stadium became the new home of the

team when they moved from their former home at Ballymore Stadiumbr>
This move caused some disquiet amongst rugby traditionalists, however was accepted by Queensland Rugby Union CEO Theo Psaros, who said that "our hearts may be at Ballymore but our heads say it's time to move.". The year before the Reds' move, the newly established football team Brisbane Roar FC, Queensland Roar of 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 ...

also elected to play their home games at Suncorp Stadium. New Zealand rugby journalist Wynne Gray called Suncorp Stadium perhaps the best rugby stadium in the world. "It is so intimate you can hear the smack of bodies, the boot on leather, you feel the power and rhythm of the games." The stadium has also been favourably compared to Cardiff's

Millennium Stadium The Millennium Stadium (), known since 2016 as the Principality Stadium () for sponsorship reasons, is the national stadium of Wales. Located in Cardiff, it has a retractable roof and is the home of the Wales national rugby union team; it has ...

and London's

Twickenham Stadium Twickenham Stadium (; usually known as Twickenham, and for sponsorship purposes known as the Allianz Stadium Twickenham) is a rugby union stadium in Twickenham, London, England. It is owned by the Rugby Football Union (RFU), the English rugby u ...

. On 29 July 2006, the Bledisloe Cup clash between the Wallabies and the

All Blacks The New Zealand national rugby union team, commonly known as the All Blacks, is the representative men's national team in the sport of rugby union for the nation of New Zealand, which is considered the country's national sport. Famed for th ...

returned to Brisbane for the first time in over a decade for the 2006 Tri Nations Series. Though Australia narrowly lost the match, the game saw a new ground record set. Suncorp Stadium

A month later on 7 October the stadium hosted a 1–1 friendly soccer game between

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 ...

and

Paraguay Paraguay, officially the Republic of Paraguay, is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the Argentina–Paraguay border, south and southwest, Brazil to the Brazil–Paraguay border, east and northeast, and Boli ...

in which Tony Vidmar, Stan Lazaridis, Zeljko Kalac and goal scorer Tony Popovic all retired from international soccer. On 8 November 2006, a crowd of 44,358 saw the Great Britain national rugby league team play against

for the last time. On Wednesday 13 and Thursday 14 December, the stadium hosted its first music concert since the 1980s and the stadium's redevelopment when

Robbie Williams Robert Peter Williams (born 13 February 1974) is an English singer and songwriter. He found fame as a member of the pop group Take That from 1990 to 1995, launching a solo career in 1996. His debut studio album, ''Life thru a Lens'', was re ...

performed in front of two 52,413 sell-out crowds during his "Close Encounters" tour of Australia, and was the venue for the U2 360 tour in December 2010. That same month the stadium hosted

Bon Jovi Bon Jovi is an American Rock music, rock band formed in Sayreville, New Jersey in 1983. The band consists of singer Jon Bon Jovi, keyboardist David Bryan, drummer Tico Torres, guitarists John Shanks and Phil X, percussionist Everett Bradley ...

as part of The Circle Tour. The Stadium was also the site of the 2011 A-League Grand Final, drawing a crowd of over 50,000. The match was one of the most dramatic in A-League history, with the Brisbane Roar scoring two goals in the last five minutes to level the scores with the Central Coast Mariners after several hundred home supporters had left the stadium early, many returning after hearing the stadium erupt while waiting for the train. The Roar went on to win 4–2 in the penalty shootout, making for an incredible victory. The stadium is also home to the Lang Park Police Citizens Youth Club. American Singer-Songwriter

Taylor Swift Taylor Alison Swift (born December 13, 1989) is an American singer-songwriter. Known for her autobiographical songwriting, artistic versatility, and Cultural impact of Taylor Swift, cultural impact, Swift is one of the Best selling artists, w ...

played at Suncorp Stadium for her Red Tour on 7 December 2013. In September 2016, it was announced that the video screens, originally installed in 2003, would be replaced. Construction started on the new video screens in March 2017 and was finished in early May 2017 in time for an NRL double header. In 2019, the stadium hosted the NRL's inaugural Magic Round, in which all eight matches in a single round are played at the one venue. The NRL has an agreement to host its Magic Round in Brisbane until the 2027 season. The 2025 Magic Round was held at Suncorp Stadium from 1 to 4 May 2025 with a total attendance of 149,329. In 2020, the

Melbourne Storm The Melbourne Storm is a rugby league football club based in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia that participates in the National Rugby League (NRL). The club plays its home games at AAMI Park, and wears a purple and navy blu ...

played their "home" finals at the venue, as it was not possible for the team to play them at its regular home ground,

AAMI Park The Melbourne Rectangular Stadium, currently known as AAMI Park for sponsorship reasons, is a multi-purpose stadium located in the Melbourne Sports and Entertainment Precinct in the suburb of East Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victor ...

, due to the state of Victoria being locked down during the state's second wave of

coronavirus Coronaviruses are a group of related RNA viruses that cause diseases in mammals and birds. In humans and birds, they cause respiratory tract infections that can range from mild to lethal. Mild illnesses in humans include some cases of the comm ...

infections. On 26 June 2021, the

played at home against the New South Wales Blues in the

State of Origin series The State of Origin series is an annual best-of-three rugby league series between two States and territories of Australia, Australian state representative sides, the New South Wales rugby league team, New South Wales Blues and the Queensland ru ...

. Queensland lost the game 26–0, and henceforth the series. Due to a COVID-19 lockdown in New South Wales, which began on 26 June 2021 and was still in effect into October, the stadium hosted twenty-one extra games on top of its normal commitments to the Brisbane Broncos as well as Magic Round, including the 2021 NRL Grand Final on 3 October 2021. This was the second time that a rugby league premiership Grand Final was played outside of Sydney, following the 1997 Super League Grand Final. In 2023, the stadium hosted several matches of the

Average attendance per team

Popular culture

In the 1980s, Brisbane

icon Wally Lewis became known as ''The Emperor of Lang Park'' after his performances in State of Origin matches played at the ground. Brisbane-based beer XXXX, which is brewed at the nearby Castlemaine Brewery, ran a television advertisement celebrating this title in song: In 2006, Queensland Minister for Sport, Tom Barton introduced the Stadium's Sports Media Hall of Fame which honours the achievements of media representatives who have covered the major football codes played at this historic ground over the past 40 years. So far, there are five inductees: rugby league commentator George Lovejoy, rugby league journalists Jack Reardon and Steve Ricketts, Gerry Collins and Frank O'Callaghan.

Statues

There are several commemorative bronze statues outside the stadium: * Wally Lewis (Rugby league) *

Darren Lockyer Darren James Lockyer (born 24 March 1977) is an Australian television commentator and former professional rugby league footballer. Lockyer was an Australian international and Queensland State representative captain, who played his entire profe ...

(Rugby league) *

Mal Meninga Malcolm Norman Meninga (; born 8 July 1960) is an Australian professional rugby league coach and a former professional rugby league footballer. Meninga is widely regarded as one of the finest players in the game's history. He enjoyed a long ca ...

(Rugby league) * Arthur Beetson (Rugby league) *

John Eales John Anthony Eales (born 27 June 1970) is an Australian former rugby union player and the most successful captain in the history of Australian rugby. In 1999, he became one of the first players to win multiple Rugby World Cups. Early life E ...

(Rugby union) *

Allan Langer Allan Jeffrey "Alfie" Langer AM (born 30 July 1966) is an Australian former multi-award-winning rugby league footballer who played in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s and worked as an assistant coach for the Australian national team, the Queenslan ...

(Rugby league) * The Matildas 2023 World Cup team (Soccer)

Awards

In 2009, as part of the

Q150 Q150 was the sesquicentenary (150th anniversary) of the Separation of Queensland from New South Wales in 1859. Separation established the Colony of Queensland which became the State of Queensland in 1901 as part of the Federation of Australia ...

celebrations, Suncorp Stadium (Lang Park) was announced as one of the Q150 Icons of Queensland for its role as a "structure and engineering feat".

Concerts

Accessibility

Controversially, the redevelopment was the first major sporting facility in Australia with no car parking, primarily due to concerns with traffic congestion in the surrounding residential neighbourhood. Instead, the stadium's is surrounded by pubs, restaurants, cafes, bars and the XXXX brewery. This together with dedicated pedestrian links to Milton railway station and Brisbane CBD adds to the match day experience and is seen as a model for new stadiums and large entertainment venues. The stadium redevelopment has been the catalyst for the Barracks urban renewal development at Petrie Terrace midway along the dedicated pedestrian link to the CBD.

Facts

2015 AFC Asian Cup

2023 FIFA Women's World Cup

Controversies

On Thursday, 16 June 2011, The Weekend Australian revealed that Suncorp Stadium was in danger of either losing the hosting rights to all Queensland based NRL finals matches to Sydney, or having its capacity limited to 25,000 seats, due to a condition included in the legislation regarding the Stadium's redevelopment that only 24 'special events' (i.e. with attendance in excess of 25,000) a year can be hosted at the venue. This number of special events was reached when the

faced the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles in Round 26 of the 2011 NRL Telstra Premiership Season. On 6 September 2011, legislation was passed to lift the crowd capacity limit to 35,000 for those 24 events, enabling the Broncos to host finals matches should they progress that far. The stadium's grass quality was criticised by coaches and players during the

2015 AFC Asian Cup The 2015 AFC Asian Cup was the 16th edition of the men's AFC Asian Cup, a quadrennial international association football, football tournament organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). It was held in Australia from 9 to 31 January 201 ...

Rugby league test matches

The venue has hosted forty-two

internationals. The results were as follows; It also hosted three non Australia matches. Incidentally, they were all

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

matches. The first was a 1975 Rugby League World Cup match against

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

on 10 June 1975 with 6,000 in attendance and lost 12 – 7. The second was a 2008 Rugby League World Cup match against New Zealand on 15 November 2008 with 26,659 in attendance and lost 32 – 22. The third and final to date was a 2014 Four Nations match between against

Samoa Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa and known until 1997 as Western Samoa, is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania, in the South Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main islands (Savai'i and Upolu), two smaller, inhabited ...

with 47,813 in attendance and was a double header which was followed by the Australia New Zealand match. England won 32 – 26. Suncorp Stadium hosted two matches of the 2017 Rugby League World Cup. The venue played host to the first semi-final on 24 November and the tournament final on 2 December.

Rugby union internationals

Men's soccer internationals

Women's soccer internationals

Boxing

Suncorp Stadium was the host of the

Manny Pacquiao vs. Jeff Horn Manny Pacquiao vs. Jeff Horn, billed as the ''Battle of Brisbane'', was a professional boxing match for the World Boxing Organization, WBO and Lineal championship, ''Lineal'' welterweight championship. The event took place on 2 July 2017 at Lang ...

fight for the WBO

welterweight Welterweight is a weight class in combat sports. Originally the term ''welterweight'' was used only in boxing, but other combat sports like muay Thai, taekwondo, and mixed martial arts also use it for their own weight division system to classify th ...

championship with 51,052 people in attendance.

References

External links

* * {{Authority control Sports venues in Brisbane A-League Men stadiums Soccer venues in Brisbane Boxing venues in Australia Rugby league stadiums in Australia Rugby union stadiums in Australia History of Brisbane Brisbane Roar FC Brisbane Broncos Queensland Reds Queensland rugby league team Sports venues completed in 1914 Milton, Queensland 1914 establishments in Australia Former cemeteries Music venues in Australia Venues of the 2032 Summer Olympics Olympic rugby venues Olympic stadiums Dolphins (NRL)