Adelaide Oval

About

Adelaide Oval is widely regarded as one of the most picturesque sporting grounds in the world. Home to cricket, AFL footy, concerts, functions and major events.

Story

Adelaide Oval has long been one of Australia’s most recognisable and prestigious venues. Its prominent location as the centrepiece of a revitalised riverbank precinct, along with stunning panoramic views over the oval’s hallowed turf, the city of Adelaide, St Peter’s Cathedral and beyond, provides a unique setting to entertain clients, celebrate milestones or network in style.

History.
Cricket was first played at the Adelaide Oval in 1873 and the first Test match was played in December 1884, but it was the infamous Bodyline Test in January 1933 that saw a record 174,452 spectators at Adelaide Oval to watch cricket. The more recent 2006-07 Ashes Test was also a major event with 136,761 spectators enjoying the five days of play.

However, the highest single day’s attendance record for any sport played at the Adelaide Oval belongs to football with 62,543 people attending the 1965 grand final between Port Adelaide and Sturt.

Australian football was first played at Adelaide Oval in 1877 and, since that time, 18 sports including archery, athletics, baseball, cycling, hockey, lacrosse, lawn tennis, rugby and soccer have been played at the Oval.

The Adelaide Oval has also hosted visits by three future kings of England and Queen Elizabeth on the 1954 royal tour. Other state events held at the Oval include the memorial services for Dame Nellie Melba, Pope John Paul and former Test cricketer David Hookes.

Some of the world’s best-known entertainers have performed at the Oval with The Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, Elton John, Michael Jackson, AC/DC, Foo Fighters and Madonna all playing to capacity crowds.

Adelaide Oval’s iconic northern end.
The Oval’s distinctive Moreton Bay figs were planted in the 1890s and remain a historical backdrop to the northern end of play, as does the famous Edwardian scoreboard.

Designed by architect Kenneth Milne, the scoreboard began service on 3 November 1911. The clock was added in 1912 and the wind vane in the 1930s.

There are four levels on the inside connected by stairs. It is almost entirely mechanical using mainly original machinery. The only electrical items used on the scoreboard are the light bulbs indicating the batsman on strike, and the fielder who has fielded the ball. The board requires only two attendants for football but as many as six for limited-over and Test matches, but up to eight for T20 matches.

House Rules

We respect everyone’s right to express their thoughts and opinions, and encourage constructive dialogue among members of this group. However, we do please ask you to remember that if your contributions don’t comply with Facebook’s Terms, and/or our House Rules, then we may remove them, and if you repeatedly don’t adhere to them then we may block you from posting to the Adelaide Oval Facebook page.

While we moderate this site, we do hope to create a community with you that is built on respect with a culture of self-moderation.

So we’ve kept it to just four basic rules that we ask you to keep in mind.

1. Keep your posts nice. Do not include content, image or links to things which could be considered obscene, offensive, defamatory, threatening, harassing, overtly sexual, discriminatory or hateful to another person or organisation - including us, our partners, our employees, competitors and other people or organisations.

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3. Keep posts relevant to the Adelaide Oval page and thread and post only information that is factually accurate.

4. Please don’t post any of your own or anyone else’s personal information.

We welcome your feedback, both positive and negative, and will endeavour to respond to your comments when we can.

While we support lively, open discussion, we reserve the right at our discretion to delete any comments that don’t comply with our rules or which we otherwise think are inappropriate and (if required) block users.

That’s enough of the serious stuff. Now let’s have some fun.

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