Campbelltown Stadium is based in the suburb Leumeah and is the sporting heart of South-West Sydney. Currently one of the West Tigers’ three home grounds, the Tigers will only take three games out west in the 2018 season, in a potential indication of their increasing unwillingness to travel so far from their traditional Balmain base.
Formerly known as Orana Park and Campbelltown Sports Ground, the 20,000-capacity stadium would be the home of the Western Suburbs Magpies between the years of 1987 and 1999. As of the 2000 season, the stadium would become one of the home grounds for the Wests Tigers, a new merger club between the Magpies and the Balmain Tigers. The first game played at the ground for the joint venture saw the Tigers come up against the Brisbane Broncos, with Wests springing an upset to record a 24-all draw.
In 2005, Campbelltown Stadium recorded its highest ever crowd, with 20,527 fans filing through the turnstiles to see the Tigers take on the North Queensland Cowboys. However, like St George Illawarra’s WIN Stadium in Wollongong, Campbelltown Stadium is the ground that is playing second fiddle to a suburban ground much closer to the Sydney CBD. Poor crowd numbers in recent years are a worrying sign for the Tigers, whose fanbase is split by Sydney’s sprawling topography.
Campbelltown locals will be hoping that their Wests can improve on the park, and juggle the responsibility to catering to them, as well as their other fanbase in the inner-west.
