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The Sydney Stadium was a sporting and entertainment venue in
Sydney Stadium was built in 1908 on the site of a former Chinese
/ref> Macintosh originally built a temporary open-air stadium to promote a World heavyweight boxing championship title fight between Canadian world heavyweight champion Tommy Burns and Australian champion Bill "Boshter" Squires on 24 August 1908, which Burns won by a knockout in the 13th Round. It also hosted the biggest sporting event in Australia's history up till then, where over 20,000 crammed in the stadium on 26 December 1908 to see Tommy Burns fight the African-American Jack Johnson. This fight captivated the world because it was the first time that a 'black' man fought for the prestigious World Heavyweight Boxing Championship, with Johnson winning to take the title. In 1912 an octagonal structure, with a roof, was built to a design by Thomas Pollard Sampson. The new venue had raked wooden seats facing the central stage and could accommodate as many as 12,000 people. It was mainly used as a venue for boxing matches until the mid-1900s.
Aerial view of Sydney Stadium in 1964
{{Authority control Defunct boxing venues Demolished buildings and structures in Sydney Former buildings and structures in Sydney Music venues in Sydney Sports venues in Sydney Boxing venues in Australia Rushcutters Bay, New South Wales
The Sydney Stadium was a sporting and entertainment venue in Sydney, New South Wales
Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...
, which formerly stood on the corner of New South Head Road and Neild Avenue, Rushcutters Bay
Rushcutters Bay is a harbourside eastern suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia 3 kilometres east of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Sydney.
The suburb of Rushcutter ...
. Built in 1908, it was demolished in 1970 to make way for the construction of the Eastern Suburbs Railway.
History
Sydney Stadium was built in 1908 on the site of a former Chinese market garden
A market garden is the relatively small-scale production of fruits, vegetables and flowers as cash crops, frequently sold directly to consumers and restaurants. The diversity of crops grown on a small area of land, typically from under to som ...
that was leased by boxing promoter Hugh Donald Macintosh as a venue for sporting events.Woollahra Municipal Council - Local History Fast Facts - retrieved 29 April 2009/ref> Macintosh originally built a temporary open-air stadium to promote a World heavyweight boxing championship title fight between Canadian world heavyweight champion Tommy Burns and Australian champion Bill "Boshter" Squires on 24 August 1908, which Burns won by a knockout in the 13th Round. It also hosted the biggest sporting event in Australia's history up till then, where over 20,000 crammed in the stadium on 26 December 1908 to see Tommy Burns fight the African-American Jack Johnson. This fight captivated the world because it was the first time that a 'black' man fought for the prestigious World Heavyweight Boxing Championship, with Johnson winning to take the title. In 1912 an octagonal structure, with a roof, was built to a design by Thomas Pollard Sampson. The new venue had raked wooden seats facing the central stage and could accommodate as many as 12,000 people. It was mainly used as a venue for boxing matches until the mid-1900s.
The Old Tin Shed
From 1954 onwards and through the 1960s, the stadium was frequently used to host concerts by visiting overseas performers – notably the groundbreaking "The Big Show" package tours promoted by expatriate American entrepreneur Lee Gordon – as it was the only large-capacity indoor venue in Sydney at that time. It colloquially became known by performers as "The Old Tin Shed" and was so big that American starBob Hope
Leslie Townes "Bob" Hope (May 29, 1903 – July 27, 2003) was a British-American comedian, vaudevillian, actor, singer and dancer. With a career that spanned nearly 80 years, Hope appeared in Bob Hope filmography, more than 70 short and ...
purportedly said it was "like Texas with a roof on it".
The stadium hosted many major Australian, New Zealand, British and United States stars.
Sydney Stadium was demolished in 1970 to make way for the construction of the Eastern Suburbs Railway."Then and Now" ''Network
Network, networking and networked may refer to:
Science and technology
* Network theory, the study of graphs as a representation of relations between discrete objects
* Network science, an academic field that studies complex networks
Mathematics ...
'' November 1974 page 3 The location of the former site is commemorated by a plaque at the edge of the Weigall sporting field, the sports fields of Sydney Grammar and the Sydney Grammar Edgecliff Preparatory School.
Exhibition
TheMuseum of Sydney
The Museum of Sydney is a historical collection and exhibit, built on the ruins of the house of New South Wales' first Governor, Arthur Phillip, on the present-day corner of Phillip and Bridge Street, Sydney.
Description
The original house, ...
held a major exhibition about the history of the Sydney Stadium. The exhibition started on 22 September 2012 and finished on 10 March 2013. It looked at the origins of the Stadium as well as the fights, performers, wrestling, fans and Roller derby
Roller derby is a roller skating contact sport played by two teams of fifteen members. Roller derby is played by approximately 1,250 amateur leagues worldwide, mostly in the United States.
Game play consists of a series of short scrimmages (j ...
among other topics.
References
External links
Aerial view of Sydney Stadium in 1964
{{Authority control Defunct boxing venues Demolished buildings and structures in Sydney Former buildings and structures in Sydney Music venues in Sydney Sports venues in Sydney Boxing venues in Australia Rushcutters Bay, New South Wales