Industry News

ANZ Stadium ready to host NRL games following Adele, Bieber concerts 

Sydney’s multi-purpose ANZ Stadium has been given the go-ahead to host upcoming NRL rugby league games.
Following Adele and Justin Bieber concerts held at the venue, where more than 260,000 fans attended, more than 20 workers toiled for seven days to clean up and prepare the ground. Staff needed to get rid of damaged grass, level the playing surface and run in new turf.
ANZ Stadium’s grounds-keeper Graeme Logan, a 37-year veteran of turf management, worked around the clock to ensure the stadium was fit for purpose.
“Our grounds team had 14-hour days across the weekend,” Logan told Australian newspaper the Daily Telegraph. “We’ve laid 4500 square metres of new turf and laser-levelled the field, and the preparation work we did going into the Adele and Bieber concerts has ensured we can lay and play on this turf.
“Persistent rain over the past week has made our job just a little bit harder, but provided we don’t get too much more rain, the players should find it reasonably firm underfoot.”
NRL staff inspected the ground on Wednesday and declared the ANZ Stadium was ready to host tonight’s game between the Sydney Roosters and the South Sydney Rabbitohs.
“We’ve been growing a large amount of couch grass on a turf farm in western Sydney for some time knowing that we would have to replace turf on the back of our concert season,” Logan added.
“We’ve gone from NRL grand final to monster trucks, to A-League and NRL, Adele and Bieber concerts, and now back to NRL,” he said. “It’s enough to give an old curator sleepless nights … but 260,000 music fans will tell you it was all worth it.”
Last month, the ANZ Stadium underwent another quick week turnaround following two Guns N’ Roses concerts. It was declared ready to stage the subsequent weekend’s A-League football match, despite concerns that the derby match between Western Sydney Wanderers and Sydney FC would suffer as a result of the wear and tear ANZ Stadium’s pitch endured during the two shows.