Farewell Football Park

[Orel Puppington]

This Saturday after 22 years of AFL games at Football Park we say goodbye to such a great venue that like Waverley Park in Melbourne served as a bargaining ground for the SANFL's rights to have games played at Adelaide Oval in 1973. I lived in Adelaide from late 2003 to early 2006 and I have many fond memories of this place. At the close Showdown 28 when the final siren went, one of the biggest roars I heard in Adelaide was made by the Crows fans near where I was seated. Footy Park lived on for 14 years longer than Waverley and in 2001 the members stand was extended to the Northern goals fitting an extra 7,000 seats. But that was not enough to keep AFL at the venue. This forum is dedicated to Football Park and the memories (good or bad) you or someone else had there and the history of the stadium. I'm going to the final game to say farewell to the aging venue and if you live in Adelaide, please go to Port vs Carlton for one last hurrah at Football Park.

[kilonewton]

Relatives live in Adelaide, and we went to a couple of SANFL Grand Finals in the late 80s as two of the girls had their birthdays in Sep / Oct, and we needed to kill time before the 21st parties. My abiding memory is sitting in the back row of North v Port match. It was just nears the scoreboard, so we weren't under a roof, and it was a baking hot day. Darren Jarman was playing for North, and Scotty Hodges was the hero of the Port ferals, sorry, fans.
Of course, I may have the two matches conjoined in my memory, it was a very long time ago!

[yob]

Football Park was my childhood

[mattwinter]

Only a few years ago they were planning to upgrade:

http://www.footballinvective.com/2009/A ... opment.jpg

Happy to see it gone, but sad all the same

[Orel Puppington]

Like the Melbourne Metro Rail Tunnel that was never going to happen

[HoldenV8]

Footy Park will still be in use for the SANFL finals this year. Its not gone just yet.

[Adelaide_United_Red]

Footy Park will still be in use for the SANFL finals this year. Its not gone just yet.

Good, there's more to footy park's history than just the AFL games that were played there.

[yob]

Footy Park might get early round games next year. This is due to an extended format to the AFL season that will see the rounds overlap with cricket season.

Makes another mockery of the stadium "sharing" agreement before it has even started.

[Rob]

Footy Park might get early round games next year. This is due to an extended format to the AFL season that will see the rounds overlap with cricket season.

Makes another mockery of the stadium "sharing" agreement before it has even started.

I'm pretty sure if the agreement prevents events that would host 50,000 people in favour of events that would host 500 people then that's about as big a mockery as you can possibly imagine.

[RobertHeatleyStand]

45,127 there for the last game... great atmosphere

Da da da da da

[Boba Fett]

Footy Park might get early round games next year. This is due to an extended format to the AFL season that will see the rounds overlap with cricket season.

Makes another mockery of the stadium "sharing" agreement before it has even started.

I'm pretty sure if the agreement prevents events that would host 50,000 people in favour of events that would host 500 people then that's about as big a mockery as you can possibly imagine.

Or maybe the AFL should pull its head in and not schedule a ridiculously long season. I'll never understand why football needs to be played before April or after October. Apart from naked commercial greed that is...

[Brucetiki]

Many great memories of Football Park.

My favourite AFL memory would be the 2005 'Dream Showdown' Semi Final.

Me favourite SANFL memory would be the 2000 SANFL Grand Final.

[yob]

My favourite memory at the ground is "Whitten's a Wanker"

[HoldenV8]

The last SANFL Grand Final played at Footy Park saw Norwood (the defending premiers) defeat North Adelaide (who played in the very first game at the ground) in front of 36,685 fans, the largest GF crowd since 39,135 saw Port Adelaide defeat Norwood in 1999.

Football Park stats:

Highest AFL Attendance - 51,140 - Power def. Crows, Showdown XIII, 2003
Highest SANFL Attendance - 66,897 - Sturt def. Port, 1976 Grand Final
Highest non-Showdown AFL Attendance (Crows) - 50,514 - West Coast def. Adelaide, 2006 Second Preliminary Final
Highest non-Showdown AFL Attendance (Power) - 46,978 - Port def. St Kilda, 2004 First Preliminary Final
Total Adelaide Crows attendance 1991-2013 - 10,071,183 (average: 39,965)
Total Port Power attendance 1997-2013 - 5,206,401 (average 27,991)

[Simmo79]

So where did the extra 15k sit for the '76 SANFL GF?