Sydney Football Stadium
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The Sydney Football Stadium (SFS) was built in 1988 to be the premium football stadium in Sydney. Until then top football events were usually held at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG), which being an Oval field was not ideal for the sport. The SFS was built in Moore Park, adjacent to the SCG, on the grounds of the former Sydney Sportsground and is owned by the SCG Trust. In 2002 the SFS was renamed Aussie Stadium - in a 5 Year + 5 Year naming rights deal with the business Aussie Home Loans.
Aussie Stadium is home to several professional teams. Two National Rugby League (NRL) teams, the Sydney Roosters and South Sydney Rabbitohs, and the New South Wales Waratahs Super 12 Rugby Union team use it as their home ground. Aussie Stadium usually hosts both NRL semi finals and one NRL preliminary final as well as the annual pre-season Charity Shield Rugby League match between South Sydney and St. George Illawarra. Sydney FC, who will play in the new A-League association football competition, will use the SFS as their home ground from 2005.
Most major representative Rugby Football matches in Sydney that were once played at the SFS, such as State of Origin Rugby League and Rugby Union Internationals, have been played at Telstra Stadium (Stadium Australia) since it was finished in 1999 for the 2000 Olympic Games. This much larger new stadium took a lot of the major events away from the SFS, leaving it as a second-tier venue although it is far from a white elephant.
Aussie Stadium is the venue of some of Australian Sports greatest matches and moments such as the 1989 Rugby League Grand Final which was won by the Canberra Raiders over the Balmain Tigers 19-14, the 1991 Rugby League Grand Final won by Penrith over Canberra 19-12 in which Royce Simmons scored 2 tries in his final match, the 1997 ARL Grand Final Between Newcastle and Manly which the Knights won 22-16 and 2 standout State Of Origin matches in which QLD triumphed over NSW with last-minute victories in 1994 and 1998 and Michael O'Connor's sideline conversion for a NSW win in Game 2, 1991. The ground also hosted many memorable semi-finals and Monday Night Football in 1996.
Rugby Union provided a moment of magic thanks to George Gregan's last second match-winning tackle on NZ's Jeff Wilson in which Australia regained the Bledisloe Cup in 1994.
Argentinian superstar footballer Diego Maradona played at the S.F.S (as it was called) in a World Cup qualifier against Australia in 1993 in which the match was drawn.