Oriole Park (Sydney) Explained

Stadium Name:Oriole Park
Image Alt:Oriole Park
Location:Euston Road, Auburn, New South Wales 2144
Opened:1960s
Renovated:1980
Closed:2014
Demolished:2017
Surface:Grass
Former Names:Auburn Stadium
Tenants:Auburn Baseball Club
Parramatta Patriots (ABL) 1989-1991
Dimensions:Left Field - 328feet
Left-Center - 368feet
Center Field - 380feet
Right-Center - 368feet
Right Field - 328feet

Oriole Park is a park in Auburn, a western suburb of the Australian metropolis Sydney. It is named after a baseball stadium that used to be there and which was the home of the Auburn Baseball Club, known as Auburn Orioles, which are now merged with Macarthur Colts to form the Macarthur Orioles.

The stadium hosted the interstate competition Claxton Shield in 1970, 1975, 1980, and 1981.[1] The field was extended and had lighting added prior to hosting the 1980 competition.[2] Oriole Park was alongside the Flat Rock baseball diamond in Willoughby one of the two venues of the VIII Baseball World Junior Championship 1988.

Auburn's Oriole Park was a contender to become a venue for the Baseball competition of the Sydney 2000 Olympics, however, eventually it was decided to host those events at the Sydney Showground Stadium and the newly established Blacktown Olympic Park.[3]

The stadium was demolished and removed sometime between 2009 and 2013. The eight floodlight masts were kept standing. Two of them nowadays serve as relays for mobile telephony and the like.[4] In 2017 Cumberland Council announced that an adjacent building which served the stadium and baseball on the ground would be torn down as restoring it would be too expensive.[5]

Notes and References

  1. Book: Clark . Joe . A History of Australian Baseball: Time and Game . 2003 . University of Nebraska Press . 9780803264403 . 77 . 25 December 2019.
  2. News: New Look for Claxton Venue . . 18 October 1979 . 25 October 2011 . Curren . Brian . 30.
  3. "Oriole Park Named as the Second Olympic Baseball Venue", Press Release by NSW Olympics Minister Michael Knight, 4 June 1997
  4. The removal can be gleaned from Google Street View comparisons
  5. Former Oriole Park Baseball Club structure to go . cumberland.nsw.gov.au . Cumberland Council . 25 December 2019 . 3 August 2017.