York Park is a sports ground in the Inveresk and York Park Precinct, Launceston, Australia. Primarily used for Australian rules football, its record attendance of 20,971 was set in June 2006. Since 2001 it has been a venue for international sports events, and in 2005 was redeveloped at a cost of USD 23. 6 million. In 2009 York Park became home to the Tasmanian Football Hall of Fame.
About York Park in brief
York Park is a sports ground in the Inveresk and York Park Precinct, Launceston, Australia. Primarily used for Australian rules football, its record attendance of 20,971 was set in June 2006, when Hawthorn Football Club played Richmond Football Club in an Australian Football League match. Since 2001 it has been a venue for international sports events, and in 2005 was redeveloped at a cost of USD 23. 6 million. In 2009 York Park became home to the Tasmanian Football Hall of Fame. It will host several matches during the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup. The area now known as York Park was originally swampy, sour, and choked with weeds. After European settlement, it was used for landfill before becoming the Launcesto showgrounds in 1874. In 1919, the council held a competition for the design of the York Park sports ground, the winner to receive £20. The final design had to include two full sized tennis courts, a bowling green, a cycling track, cricket and football grounds with dressing rooms and facilities for spectators. The ground was officially opened by the St Andrews Caledonian Society on 1 January 1921. A cycling track surrounding the perimeter fence was in use by September of the same year. On 4 May 1923 The Examiner reported on that work on the grandstand was completed for the opening of the 1923 football season, when the game was transferred from the NTCA Ground to York Park. The first game between teams representing the northern and southern halves of Tasmania took place at the oval in front of a crowd of 9,441 in August 1923.
In 1929, heavy floods caused substantial damage to the ground, destroying the cycling track which was subsequently rebuilt. In 2002, the ground was renamed York Park in honour of the Duke of York, who visited Tasmania during the Federation celebrations of 1901. It is known commercially as University of Tasmania Stadium and was formerly known as Aurora Stadium under a previous naming rights agreement signed with Aurora Energy in 2004. In 2007, the Tasmania Government signed a USD 16. 4 million, five-year sponsorship deal with Hawthorn, under which the club will play four regular season games and one National Australia Bank Cup pre-season match at the venue each year. Other sports such as cricket, tennis, bowling, cycling and foot-racing have been played at the ground. In the following decades the grounds were increasingly used for sports, including cricket, bowls and tennis. A bowling green and tennis courts were completed by 1910, along with the main oval which was used by state school sports. The venue was principally used for football by the Northern Tasmanian football Association, and for occasional inter-state games. In 2001, the venue was used to host major pop concerts and other entertainments. It has hosted several international sporting events, including the 2010 Commonwealth Games and the 2014 Commonwealth Games. It was also used for a number of international cricket matches, including a cricket match between Australia and New Zealand.
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This page is based on the article York Park published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 06, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
