Blacktown Olympic Park

Blacktown International Sportspark is a multi-sports venue in Doonside, a suburb in western Sydney, Australia. It includes three baseball diamonds, four softball diamonds, an athletics track and a Australian Rules Football/Cricket ground.

It was constructed for the 2000 Sydney Olympics and hosted all softball events for the 2000 Summer Olympics, as well as being the secondary venue for baseball, behind the Sydney Showgrounds.^[1] The original stadiums combined hold 8,000 people.

Since 2012, it has been used by the AFL's Greater Western Sydney Football Club team as their home game base.

Baseball stadium

Blacktown Baseball Stadium was built for the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games as the secondary Baseball Stadium. The stadium is now home to Baseball NSW and hosted the Claxton Shield between 2002 and 2006. It also hosted the showcase round of the Claxton Shield 2009 and will host two other NSW Patriots home games.

It is also home for the Sydney Blue Sox competing in the Australian Baseball League, who commenced their first season in November 2010.^[2]

AFL/Cricket stadium

In 2009, a stadium with a capacity of 10,000 people was constructed for Australian Rules Football and Cricket. It will be the training and admin base for the Greater Western Sydney Football Club to enter the Australian Football League in 2012. It hosted its first football match on 19 February 2010 when the Sydney Swans defeated the Carlton Blues by 12 points in the NAB Cup first round, before a sell-out crowd of 9,732.

Greater Western Sydney will play their first (and only) AFL Premiership game in Blacktown in Round 3 of the 2012 AFL season, against the West Coast Eagles.

See also

• 2000 Summer Olympics venues

References

External links

• Official site
• Blacktown Olympic Park at Austadiums (Softball stadium)
• Blacktown Olympic Park at Austadiums (Baseball stadium)
• Sydney Blue Sox