Sydney’s Accor Stadium transitions from concert venue to sporting arena

With posts erected for the rugby league season at Sydney’s Accor Stadium this week, the venue is transitioning from hosting a series of successful concert events to winter sporting codes.

Having hosted massive concert events by Ed Sheeran and Harry Styles in recent weeks, the venue has been rapidly transformed from Sydney’s biggest concert venue to an NRL field, counting down to the Rabbitohs’ first home game against the Manly Sea Eagles on Saturday night.

Almost 500,000 music fans passed through the turnstiles at Accor Stadium for an unprecedented Summer of Concerts, featuring Guns N’ Roses, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Post Malone, plus the hugely popular Ed Sheeran and Harry Styles, with Sheeran welcoming almost 180,000 fans for concerts on successive nights.

Returning to the winter sporting codes at the Stadium, with the Rabbitohs ready for back-to-back home games against the Sea Eagles (Saturday 25th March) and the Melbourne Storm (Friday 31st March) before rival home club the Bulldogs host games against the Cowboys (Sunday 2nd April) and the Rabbitohs (Friday 7th April).

The Bulldogs v Rabbitohs game is the annual Good Friday classic (4pm kick-off) and part of a huge NRL festival at Accor Stadium, with Wests Tigers hosting the Parramatta Eels at the Stadium on Easter Monday 10th April (4pm kick-off).

The Easter blockbusters are traditionally two of the biggest drawing NRL regular-season games of the season in Sydney.

In preparation for the season ahead, Accor Stadium Head Curator Graeme Logan has led the installation of a full pitch turf replacement and upgraded the arena irrigation system in the countdown to Rabbitohs v Sea Eagles this Saturday night.

Logan advised “we have had this pitch growing in Western Sydney all summer in preparation for our winter footy and we are good to go for Rabbitohs v Sea Eagles on Saturday night.”

The venue is also set to stage the potentially series-deciding State of Origin Game 3 on Wednesday 12th July after which it will host four FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 games including the CommBank Matildas’ opening game against the Republic of Ireland on Thursday 20th July, along with the World Cup Final on Sunday 20th August.

Images: On the back of the turf replacement, the Accor Stadium grounds crew led by Operations Manager Josh Edwards installed the NRL posts (top and middle). Crowd at Ed Sheeran at the venue in late February (below).