Gold Coast Sports Precinct

The Gold Coast Sports Precinct is a series of sports facilities and venues, located on the Gold Coast, Queensland, in Australia.

The exterior of Carrara Stadium.

The precinct has hosted professional sports such as Australian rules football, baseball, basketball, cricket, rugby league and rugby union in the past. It will host the athletics, badminton, weightlifting and wrestling events in the 2018 Commonwealth Games as well as the opening and closing ceremonies.

History

The site of the precinct is on the former farming property 'Birribon' owned by the Cooper family and frequently visited by Sydney Barber Josiah Skertchly.[1]

In 1983 the Nerang Bulls Rugby Union Club began using Carrara Oval but relocated to Nerang a year later. In 1986 it was announced the Brisbane Bears were granted a licence to enter the Victorian Football League and Billionaire owner Christopher Skase decided to base the team at Carrara Oval.[2] Skase redeveloped the oval into a stadium with makeshift stands intended to maximize television viewership. By the beginning of the 1987 VFL season, the newly created Carrara Stadium would hold a maximum seated capacity of 16,500.

In 1989, Skase orchestrated the instalment of $6 million flood lights which were never paid for.[3] Upon the collapse of Skase's company Qintex, he would flee the country to Spain and the flood lights would continue to be unpaid. Liquidators would attempt to extract money from the Gold Coast City Council for the lights, but after an unsuccessful trial it was found cheaper to leave the flood lights at Carrara Stadium. On 15 July 1989 the Bears hosted the first ever night match at Carrara against the Geelong Cats in front of a then record crowd of 18,198.

The Gold Coast Rollers basketball team were announced to join the National Basketball League in 1990 and the Carrara Indoor Stadium was built to house the team. A newly formed Baseball team named the Gold Coast Clippers also began using Carrara Stadium in 1990 during the summer months. The Bears would relocate to the Gabba permanently in 1992 after years of financial hardship at Carrara. After several name changes and a relocation, the Baseball team now known as the Gold Coast Cougars returned to Carrara Stadium in 1993. The indoor stadium underwent major upgrades in 1996 to the tune of $800,000 in an attempt attract a bigger audience to Rollers' basketball games. The Rollers would fold later that year due to financial struggles.

A newly created National Rugby League team known as the Gold Coast Chargers would take up tenancy at Carrara Stadium in 1996. The Chargers would only last three seasons before folding in 1998. Now the only team still remaining at Carrara, the Cougars won the 1998-99 ABL Championship. The ABL would be disbanded following the season and the Cougars were no more. Professional sport returned to the precinct in 2007 when the Gold Coast Titans took up tenancy at Carrara Stadium. The following year saw the Titans move to their newly created stadium in Robina.

In 2009 the Gold Coast Football Club was created and based themselves at the precinct. A major redevelopment of Carrara Stadium began in 2010 which was followed by a successful bid on the 2018 Commonwealth Games in 2011. The precinct then began to take shape in the lead up to the Games with the creation of new venues and facilities.

Teams
  • Gold Coast Football Club, nicknamed the Suns, the team competes in the Australian Football League and play out of Carrara Stadium.

Former teams
Team Sport Used Competition Years
Brisbane BearsAustralian rules footballCarrara StadiumAustralian Football League1987–92
Gold Coast ClippersBaseballCarrara StadiumAustralian Baseball League1989–90
Gold Coast RollersBasketballCarrara Indoor StadiumNational Basketball League1990–96
Daikyo DolphinsBaseballCarrara StadiumAustralian Baseball League1992–93
Gold Coast CougarsBaseballCarrara StadiumAustralian Baseball League1993–99
Gold Coast ChargersRugby leagueCarrara StadiumNational Rugby League1996–98
Gold Coast TitansRugby leagueCarrara StadiumNational Rugby League2007
East Coast AcesRugby unionCarrara StadiumAustralian Rugby Championship2007
Gold Coast BlazeBasketballCarrara Indoor Stadium (training)National Basketball League2007–12
Gold Coast UnitedSoccerWestern Fields (training)A-League2011–12

Sports facilities

Current facilities
  • Carrara Stadium (capacity: 25,000; outdoor), the premier venue for Australian rules football and cricket, and occasionally other entertainment events. The Gold Coast Football Club hold management rights over the stadium and are currently the only tenants of the venue. Prior to the 2010 redevelopment, the ground played host to a number of rugby league teams such as the Gold Coast Chargers and the Gold Coast Titans while defunct AFL side the Brisbane Bears were also former tenants of the stadium.
  • Gold Coast Sports and Leisure Centre (capacity: 5,000; indoor), a basketball and netball venue that is used by Gold Coast Basketball and includes the Gold Coast Suns' training/administration facilities as well as a synthetic grass oval.
  • Carrara Indoor Stadium (capacity: 2,992; indoor), a multipurpose venue that is located next door to Carrara Stadium. Serves as the Headquarters for Squash Australia as of 2018.
  • Carrara Eastern Oval (outdoor), an Australian rules football oval that is used primarily as a training ground for the Gold Coast Suns academy.
  • Carrara Southern Sports Fields (outdoor), a series of football (soccer) fields that are used by Gold Coast Soccer located on the southern side of the precinct.
  • Emerald Lakes Golf Club (outdoor), an 18-hole golf course adjacent to the southern sports fields.
  • KDV Sport Academy (outdoor), a golf and tennis academy that includes a 12-hole golf course and 20 clay tennis courts.

Future facilities
  • Carrara Athletics Track (capacity: 2,000; outdoor), the premier athletics facility that will be constructed as a warm up track and throwing field for the athletes of the 2018 Commonwealth Games. It will be located on the northern side of Carrara Stadium behind the Carrara Sport and Leisure Centre.
gollark: You equip a laser.
gollark: Just wildly fire sideways.
gollark: Lasers actually are really good for that.
gollark: But we don't really need that since people do not need to live there, and all you actually *need* just to teach people is a room with some computers/monitors/networking and maybe an outdoor turtle testground.
gollark: The traditional thing would be a big campus area with nice green spaces and paths and stuff, with buildings for... student housing and lectures and whatnot.

See also

References
  1. "Science and Nature Study". The Queenslander (2799). Queensland, Australia. 24 April 1920. p. 38. Retrieved 16 January 2017 – via National Library of Australia.
  2. Smart, Nick (27 May 2011). "No longer a white elephant". Gold Coast Bulletin.
  3. Houghton, Des (2 August 2010). "Breaking the curse of Carrara". The Courier Mail. Retrieved 18 September 2012.
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