Sydney United Sports Centre
Sydney (Edensor Park), Australia
Formerly: Sydney Croatia Sports Centre, King Tomislav Park
Sydney United Sports Centre carries its history in its name changes rather than in its architecture. It opened in 1979 as home to a club known then as Sydney Croatia, and for years the ground answered to Sydney Croatia Sports Centre or King Tomislav Park before the club became Sydney United and the venue followed suit. That lineage still shapes who plays there and who watches.
The main stand, known as BOKA, runs the length of the pitch on two tiers of seating. Behind one goal sit more seats; behind the other, a grass bank takes the overflow standing crowd, an arrangement more common at lower-tier European grounds than in Australian football. Capacity is set at 10,000, though the ground rarely tests that limit outside of cup football.
The pitch has had two significant reworks. In 2013 the club laid a FIFA 2 Star synthetic surface and replaced the old high steel perimeter fencing with something lower and less forbidding. Then, during the 2020 COVID-19 shutdown, the club used the enforced pause to strip out the playing carpet and shock pad, rebuild the drainage beneath, and relay a surface that went on to earn FIFA Pro Approved certification — an unusually thorough turnaround for a ground outside the top flight.
The ground's biggest night arrived on 11 September 2022, when Sydney United 58, a National Premier Leagues NSW side, came from behind to beat A-League club Brisbane Roar 3-2 after extra time in an Australia Cup semi-final. The win made the club the first side from outside the A-League to reach the Cup final since the competition took its current format in 2014, with 3,177 through the gates. Outside cup runs, the centre's regular business is NPL NSW finals football.
Who plays here
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Sydney United
98 matches
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Sydney Utd U20 7 matches
Recent matches here
| Date | Match | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 6 Sep | Sydney United — Manly United | 3:1 |
| 6 Sep | Sydney Utd U20 — Manly Utd U20 | 1:2 |
| 30 Aug | Sydney Utd U20 — St George Saints U20 | 8:4 |
| 30 Aug | Sydney United — St. George Saints | 6:0 |
| 23 Aug | Sydney Utd U20 — Apia Leichhardt U20 | 0:3 |
| 23 Aug | Sydney United — APIA Leichhardt Tigers | 0:0 |
| 2 Aug | Sydney Utd U20 — Nws Spirit U20 | 4:2 |
| 2 Aug | Sydney United — NWS Spirit | 2:0 |