Belmore Sports Ground
Belmore Sports Ground is the traditional home ground of the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs. The NRL club relocated to Homebush and ANZ Stadium following the 1998 season but have since returned to the ground as their training and administration headquarters following a redevelopment in 2011. Since 2015, the club has returned back to Belmore to play one or two premiership season home games a year at their traditional home.
Formerly known as Belmore Oval, it was originally a circle shaped ground and was opened in 1920. It was then redeveloped and re-opened as a rectangular shaped ground in 1968. The venue has a main under cover grandstand on the broadcast wing with seating for around 9,000. At each end, there is under cover standing room and some seating while on the outer wing is a large hill. Total capacity used to be around 25,000 but it now around the 17,000 mark.
Belmore Sports Ground has played host to a wide range of sports including Rugby League, Soccer & even Baseball. Located in Sydney's west, Belmore is the spiritual home ground of the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs who played at the venue from 1936 until 1998 in first grade Rugby League which is now known as the NRL. Following the 1998 season, the club moved to ANZ Stadium with their training and administration headquarters located nearby at the Homebush venue.
In 2012, the Bulldogs made a return to Belmore in a trial match against the Sydney Roosters. The club also helped state & federal governments in upgrading the venue in 2011 to hold a state-of-the-art training base for the club, which includes a million dollar practice pitch, large gym, theatre, physio room, dressing rooms for players, indoor running track which extends directly out of glass doors on to the playing arena and state-of-the-art hot spa directly connected to giant ice baths. The famous grandstand has received a major overhaul, including the removal of more than 5,000 tonnes of dirt to create space underneath for the new training facilities and the replacement of every seat.
The Bulldogs, who now hold a 21-year lease on the ground, moved back to their spiritual home as a training & administration base in 2012 and have since used the venue as a home ground for their reserve and junior teams. In 2015, the club will bring top-flight footy back to Belmore with two home games to be played at the ground. Sydney Olympic FC is also a current tenant and sub-lease holder of the ground and plays all their home matches in the NSW Premier League at the venue.
Belmore Sports Ground Details
Football
Sydney Olympic (NSWPL)