Stadium Australia

Stadium Australia, currently known as Accor Stadium for sponsorship reasons, is a multi-purpose stadium located in the suburb of Sydney Olympic Park, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The stadium, which is sometimes referred to as Sydney Olympic Stadium, Homebush Stadium or simply the Olympic Stadium, was completed in March 1999 at a cost of A$690 million^[1] to host the 2000 Summer Olympics.^[4][5] The Stadium was leased by a private company, the Stadium Australia Group, until the Stadium was sold back to the NSW Government on 1 June 2016 after NSW Premier Michael Baird announced the Stadium was to be redeveloped as a world-class rectangular stadium. The Stadium is owned by Venues NSW on behalf of the NSW Government.

The stadium was originally built to hold circa 115,000 spectators, making it the largest Olympic Stadium ever built^[6] and the second largest stadium in Australia at the time, after the Melbourne Cricket Ground. In 2003, reconfiguration work was completed to shorten the north and south wings, and install movable seating. These changes reduced the capacity to 80,000, with the capacity to add seating depending on the venue configuration. Awnings were also added over the north and south stands, allowing most of the seating to be under cover. The stadium was engineered along sustainable lines, such as using less steel in the roof structure than some other Olympic stadiums.^[7]