The stadium has a capacity of 15,000 people, with seating for up to 2,000. Its record crowd is 24,000 (estimated) attending a SANFL match between Sturt and Norwood on 9 June 1924 – at the time the highest for any suburban oval in Adelaide.[2] The highest verified attendance was 22,015 for a league game against Port Adelaide during the 1968 season.[3] This would stand as the record SANFL attendance at a suburban ground until 22,738 saw Port Adelaide play Norwood at Port's home ground Alberton Oval in 1977.
Unley Oval was the venue of one first-class match between South Australia and Lord Hawke's XI in 1903; until 2013,[4] it was the only first class match that South Australia had ever hosted away from Adelaide Oval until selected Sheffield Shield games were played at Glenelg Oval from 2014.[5] The match itself was remarkable: South Australia won by 97 runs after following on, and two different bowlers (George Thompson and Henry Hay) took nine-wicket innings hauls.[6]
Dimensions
The dimensions of the playing surface for football are 160m × 115m. The oval is egg-shaped, such that the northern end is more narrow and has shallower pockets than the southern end. Unley Oval has two main grandstands located on the western side of the ground; the newer of the two stands, "The Jack Oatey Stand", is open to the public and seats 1,500, and the Members Stand which seats 500 people.
As the ground is community facility, it is open to all users, without the perimeter fencing of most SANFL football club owned grounds, which heavily limit public access and use. Sturt Football Club erects temporary fencing on match days in order to charge admission fees which are reimburse council for half the ground preparation costs and contribute to council expenditure on the Oval's football related infrastructure.
Name
Unley Oval has had several temporary sponsor names during the football season including "Envestra Park", "House Brothers Oval" (from 2008 to 2010), and "Commander Centre Oval" (in 2011 and 2012), under various sponsorship deals.[7] In 2015 Unley Oval was renamed Peter Motley Oval in honour of former Sturt champion and club #1 ticket holder Peter Motley. In late 2021, another sponsorship deal was taken[8] changing the name to Wigan Oval until late 2023 when it was changed to Thomas Farms Oval.[9]
References
^"Unley Oval". Austadiums. Retrieved 24 December 2016.
