Collegians Sports Centre

For most of the 2000s the site at Figtree was a monument to a plan that never came off: earmarked for the Wollongong Wolves, it was left derelict, with a half-built grandstand standing over an unused oval. The Collegians Rugby League Club bought it in November 2011 for $2.2 million and spent a further $4.2 million over the following fourteen months. The ground that reopened in April 2013 carries none of the old name — Lysaghts Oval — and little of the old fabric.

What the money bought is unusually broad for a suburban ground. Alongside the 1,250-seat undercover grandstand and its six corporate boxes sit a tennis and squash centre and a rebuilt Orb Bowling Club, so the complex works on days when nobody is playing football at all. Total capacity is 5,000, most of it standing on the grass banks.

The Wolves reached the site in the end, though it took twenty-odd years and a different route. Since 2025 they have played their Australian Championship home matches here, and on 18 October 2025 a fixture against Heidelberg United drew 3,077 — the ground's record, and the largest crowd the club has played in front of since 2003.

Rugby league remains the primary tenant, with rugby union, SG Ball Cup football and community sport filling the rest of the calendar. The Illawarra Rugby Union Grand Final between Shoalhaven and Avondale was played here in September 2023.