Apollo Stadium

Apollo Stadium (officially called the Apollo Entertainment Centre) was an indoor arena located at 41 Kingston Avenue, Richmond in the Adelaide Metropolitan Area, South Australia. The stadium had an original seating capacity of 4,000 until the early 1980s when the bench seats were replaced by individual plastic seats giving a reduced capacity of 3,000.

Opened in 1969, the stadium was named for the Apollo moon landing of the same year.

In 1991 it was superseded as Adelaide's premier concert venue by the new 12,000 capacity Adelaide Entertainment Centre and in 1992 the venue was superseded as the home of basketball and netball by the new 8,000 seat Clipsal Powerhouse. The building then became a church for a few years but was eventually sold and demolished, with the site subsequently being redeveloped for housing.

Sports arena

Apollo Stadium was Adelaide's major basketball arena from 1969 until 1991, being the home court of the West Adelaide Bearcats (1979-84), Glenelg Tigers (1979) and Adelaide 36ers (1982-91) of the National Basketball League.

The Bearcats and 36ers were almost unbeatable at the venue, indeed during the 1986 NBL regular season the 36ers were undefeated at home going 15-0. The only game they lost at Apollo all season was Game 2 of the Grand Final series when they suffered a shock 83-104 loss to the Brisbane Bullets. The 36ers won their first NBL Championship at Apollo two days after their Game 2 loss when they accounted for the Bullets 113-91 in Game 3 in what was coach Ken Cole's last game in charge of the club.

The stadium hosted the 1981 NBL Grand Final when the Launceston Casino City defeated the Nunawading Spectres.^[1] The venue also hosted the 1982 NBL All-Star Game with the East team defeating the West in a high scoring game 153-148.^[2]

Despite its low spectator capacity Apollo Stadium was known as one of the loudest venues in the NBL during its use from 1979 until 1991. With a capacity crowd of 3,000 sitting close to the action it was an intimidating task for opposition teams with 36ers players often referring to Apollo as the teams "6th Man".

Apollo Stadium was the home of the State League Netball grand final (usually televised locally by Channel 9) as well as being host to international and national state netball games until the Powerhouse opened in 1992.

Apollo Stadium also hosted other indoor sports such as volleyball and badminton and the venue was generally seen as the indoor home of South Australian teams in national competitions or tournaments.

Music venue

Apollo Stadium was a significant music venue in South Australia. Among the rock bands and musicians who performed at the stadium were:

References