Bankwest Stadium

Populous embraced the NSW Government brief for the best club stadium in Australia, along with a deep response to site – historical, social and environmental. Bankwest Stadium was designed to: create an extraordinary atmosphere for fans - providing the best possible experience to watch live sport; be an identifiable symbol for Western Sydney; and flexible enough to be used by the community, inside and out all year round. Home to five professional football clubs, the design needed to to create the best possible venue to watch football as well as feel like the home stadium of every team who plays there.

Bankwest Stadium boasts Australian-firsts including: - covered outdoor terraces, balcony suites and a field club ensure all fans are part of the crowd and atmosphere; - seats at the steepest permissible angle and as close to the field as possible, providing the best sightlines for a rectangular stadium. - 1,200 convertible safe standing seats - The roof provides 100% spectator coverage, allows natural light to maintain the grass field, and its continuous halo creates a changeable coloured backdrop at the flick of a switch. The cauldron style seating bowl and 360 degree LED ribbon board creates a colosseum of sound and colour.

The Stadium has been a great success for the clubs, NSW Government and the city of Parramatta since opening in April 2019. The $360 million first-class stadium was delivered on time and on budget. Embraced by local fans and nicknamed ‘Parradise’ by Eels fans and ‘Wanderland’ by Wanderer’s, average crowds have nearly doubled to 21,000+. Independent economic analysis shows every game at the Stadium puts $1m into the local economy. Awarded LEED V4 Gold Certification – the international rating for sustainable buildings, over 90% of materials from the old Stadium were re-used and the footprint returned green space to Parramatta Park.

The design of Bankwest Stadium celebrates local manufacturing heritage along with steel in its natural form. Exposed and featured in its open design, the Stadium was built using Australian steel fabricated and painted in Western Sydney. Core to the team’s approach was the design of repeatable elements of steel capable of being manufactured locally; delivered to site using standard trucks to avoid closing local streets; lifted in place with mobile cranes and bolted into place without any welding – all providing time and cost savings. As a large piece of social infrastructure, the stadium’s design is sympathetic to its surrounds and nearby Parramatta Park; its activated public realm opens up the wider stadium precinct to the community for markets, recreation and leisure every day of the year. Designed for long-term viability the venue can transform from 30,000 sporting fans through to live concert mode. Flexible spaces provide six function rooms or Parramatta’s largest conference and banquet centre; 27,000 people have attended functions, business meetings, community or cultural events since opening. Bankwest Stadium has quickly become part of the social fabric of Greater Western Sydney, providing dynamic new spaces for business, community and cultural events, as well as elite sport and entertainment.