Irregular Hoops wrote:Will be a great experience for our young players who will get a chance to play an NRL side in a great stadium.
It was a great stadium when it was first built in 1999 with a capacity of 115,000 which was almost achieved at the closing ceremony of the 2000 Olympics. Afterwards it's capacity was reduced to around 84,000 and there are plans by the current NSW government to knock it down and re-model it with a 75,000 capacity.
I was there at the 1999 Grand Final when Melbourne Storm beat St.George setting a world record rugby league attendance of 108,000. I was also at Odsal in 1954 for the Challenge Cup replay when the official attendance was given as 102,500 although several thousand others entered the stadium without paying,leading to claims that the real crowd exceeded 110,000.