Central Coast Stadium

In 1911, Erina Shire Council proposed to create a park on the shore of Brisbane Water. The park required much land to be reclaimed from marshland. It also required privately owned land to be purchased by council and a section of road to be demolished. Waterside Park was opened in 1915 and a cricket pitch was added during that year. Further reclamation of the foreshore extended the park during the Depression that gave work to the unemployed. By 1939 surplus railway land had been added and a Bowling Club and green as well as tennis courts had been constructed. In 1939 the Park was renamed Grahame Park, after the then mayor of Gosford, William Calman Grahame.[2]

A full stadium was then touted and later built in the late 1990s, planned to be ready in 1999 for NRL club the North Sydney Bears, before construction problems including large spells of inclement weather delayed completion. The stadium finally opened in early 2000 as NorthPower Stadium at Grahame Park, the Northern Eagles National Rugby League team (a merging of the aforementioned Bears and the Manly Sea Eagles) taking residence there until their dissolving at the conclusion of the 2002 season.

In 2003, with no major sporting team in residence, the stadium played host to three group matches in the 2003 Rugby World Cup. The Pacific Islanders rugby union team played one match at the stadium on their 2004 tour.

The stadium gained its second full-time tenant in 2005 with the formation of the Central Coast Mariners, a team in the newly formed national A-League football competition. It became the first full-time national sporting competition to have a team play at the stadium. Further use of the stadium in 2006 follows from it being the home ground to the Central Coast Waves rugby union team, which joined the Shute Shield in 2006.

The stadium continues to host NRL competition matches from time to time, as well as a number of pre-season trials. The Central Coast Rays, the Central Coasts' Australian Rugby Championship team, played out of the stadium during the only season of the competition in 2007. The stadium continued as a home to the Mariners A-League side as of 2007, and hosted NRL matches throughout the 2008 Centenary Year. In 2014, the NSW Country Eagles hosted a National Rugby Championship match at Central Coast.

In recent years the Sydney Roosters have hosted one NRL game per season at Central Coast Stadium; other clubs such as the South Sydney Rabbitohs, Wests Tigers, Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles and Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs have also taken games to the Central Coast.[3] In 2004, Central Coast Stadium played host to two North Queensland Cowboys matches, the first of which resulted in a historic 20–20 draw with wooden spooners South Sydney, the first such result since golden point was introduced in 2003.[4]

In 2020 the ground was used as a temporary home ground for the New Zealand Warriors, due to border restrictions between Australia and New Zealand which prevented the club from travelling freely between the two countries during the COVID-19 pandemic.[5]

There has been several name changes since the Stadium was built, primarily reactions relating to sponsorship:

• Waterside Park, from 1915;
• Grahame Park, from 1939;
• NorthPower Stadium at Grahame Park, from January 2000;
• Central Coast Stadium at Grahame Park, from 23 September 2002;
• Central Coast Express Advocate Stadium at Grahame Park, from 11 February 2003;
• Central Coast Stadium at Grahame Park, from 21 March 2005;[6]
• Central Coast Bluetongue Stadium at Grahame Park, from 28 March 2006.[7]
• Central Coast Stadium at Grahame Park, from 25 January 2014;

Gosford railway station is nearby. The station is served by the Central Coast & Newcastle Line and a small number of long-distance services.

Record crowds for different sports:

Sport	Date	Match	Crowd
Rugby league	16 August 2013	South Sydney Rabbitohs def. Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles 22–10 2013 NRL season, Round 23	20,060
	1 July 2017	Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks def. Sydney Roosters 44–12 2017 NRL season, Round 17	20,060
Rugby union	27 October 2003	Japan def.  United States 26–39 2003 Rugby World Cup Pool B match	19,653
Association football	12 January 2008	Newcastle Jets def. Central Coast Mariners 2–1 A-League 2007-08, Round 20	19,238

The stadium has hosted one rugby league international.[8]

Date	Result	Attendance	Notes
1 November 2008	Scotland def.  Fiji 18–16	9,720	2008 Rugby League World Cup Group B

The stadium hosted three games of the 2003 Rugby World Cup which was held in Australia.

Date	Competition	Home team		Away team		Attendance
11 October 2003	2003 Rugby World Cup Pool A	Ireland	45	Romania	17	19,123
14 October 2003	2003 Rugby World Cup Pool A	Argentina	67	Namibia	14	17,887
27 October 2003	2003 Rugby World Cup Pool B	Japan	26	United States	39	19,653

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Central Coast Stadium.

• Official website for Central Coast Stadium
• National Rugby League
• A-League Football
• Central Coast Mariners
• Central Coast Stadium at Austadiums