Canberra Stadium (also known as GIO Stadium Canberra under naming rights) is a facility primarily used for rugby league and rugby union games, located adjacent to the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra, the capital of Australia. It is the largest sports venue by capacity in Canberra.
History
The facility was designed by architect Philip Cox and constructed by Leighton Contractors. It opened on 29 October 1977.
In 1977, it was the venue for the Pacific Conference Games, and was also the venue for the 4th IAAF World Cup in Athletics. At the latter meet, the still-current world record for the women's 400m was recorded by East German Marita Koch, and a world record for the women's 4 × 100 m relay was set by East Germany, which stood until the 2012 London Olympic Games.
In the late 1980s, the running track was removed and the warm-up track next door upgraded. New offices, seating, and photo-finish facilities were added. In the 1990 NSWRL season, the reigning NSWRL premiers the Canberra Raiders moved to Bruce Stadium from Seiffert Oval in Queanbeyan, their home ground since entering the New South Wales Rugby League in 1982. The Raiders won their second straight premiership in 1990.
The removal of the athletics track meant that Australian rules football games, more specifically those of the Australian Football League (AFL), could be played at the ground, resulting in pre-season matches being scheduled as early as 1990. In 1995, an AFL match for premiership points was contested between the West Coast Eagles and Fitzroy. There were also a number of pre-season AFL games played at the venue, mostly featuring the Sydney Swans.
Also around that time, a cricket pitch was placed in the centre of the ground as an experiment, and a day/night one-day cricket match was played between two local teams before a small crowd. Regular cricket matches on the ground did not eventuate.
Further renovations occurred in 1997, in preparation for staging soccer matches as part of the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, which shrank the size of the playing field, preventing any future Australian rules football games being played there. The final cost of the renovations was more than seven times what had been originally anticipated by the Territory government of the time, and the subsequent controversy ended the career of then Chief Minister Kate Carnell. During the lead-up, unseasonal snow fell on 28 May 2000, during a match between the Raiders and the Wests Tigers, the only such occasion in National Rugby League history, with the snow causing frost damage to the turf intended for the Olympic soccer tournament.
Olympic soccer in 2000 initiated a stadium facelift, converting the playing surface from oval to rectangular and bringing the crowd closer to the action. It is now an all-seater rectangular stadium with two main grandstands on either side of the playing field. The major disadvantage of that revamp was that the stadium could no longer host AFL games. All top-class cricket and Australian rules football games in Canberra are now staged at the 15,000-capacity Manuka Oval.
A 2008 Rugby League World Cup game between Scotland and France was played at Canberra Stadium, the first ever rugby league test played at the venue. France defeated Scotland 36–16.
In 2009, there was an A-League bid from Canberra that, if successful would have seen an A-League soccer team play at the stadium starting with the 2010–11 season. However, the League decided that the new teams would be Sydney Rovers FC (which dissolved due to financial problems) and Melbourne Heart FC.
In January 2014, Canberra Stadium was rebranded GIO Stadium Canberra as part of a naming rights deal with GIO Insurance.
A new video screen was installed at the southern end of the stadium in March 2020.
Ownership
The stadium is currently owned by the Australian Government through the Australian Sports Commission and leased to the Government of the Australian Capital Territory. While the current lease is due to expire in 2010, the ACT Government is seeking ownership of the stadium through a land transfer with the Australian Government.
Seating and capacity
Capacity is a nominal all-seated 25,011, the largest crowd being 28,753 for the 2004 Super 12 Final. The main grandstand is named after Canberra Raiders and Australian rugby league player Mal Meninga, and a statue of another Raiders and Australian league representative Laurie Daley adorns the main grandstand entrance.