Sport SA ceo says a second athletics stadium should be a key part of Adelaide Commonwealth Games

A new athletics stadium should be built as a “legacy venue” of any Adelaide Commonwealth Games, the head of Sport SA says.

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A NEW athletics stadium should be built as a “legacy venue” of any Adelaide Commonwealth Games, the head of Sport SA says.

As the push for the city to host the 2026 event heats up, Sport SA chief executive Leah Cassidytold the Sunday Mail she believed Adelaide hosting the games was an ideal chance to address its lack of athletics facilities.

“It is an ideal chance to really invest in some facilities,” she said.

“The main one that we would say would be a second athletics stadium.

“Adelaide is the only capital city that doesn’t have a second athletics stadium.”

The SA Athletics Stadium in Mile End has seating for 1200 and can host up to 6000 people after replacing the Olympic Sports Field in Kensington as Adelaide’s premier athletics venue in 1998.

It is in line for a lighting and track upgrade, but the Office of Recreation and Sport chief executive Kylie Taylor said the seating capacity was an issue.

“But predominantly it would be ‘can we get 30,000 or 40,000 seats in there?’ I would say that’s a pretty expensive exercise and if you do that there is no legacy for it,” she said.

Ms Cassidy said the new athletics stadium would be such a legacy venue and it could also be used for concerts and events.

“The legacy of many Commonwealth Games is how they provide a facility to the community,” she said.

“A new stadium gives Adelaide that legacy venue.”

She said locations for such a stadium could be at the Showgrounds in Wayville, on the Riverbank — which is being examined for a multipurpose arena stadium by the Adelaide Venue Management Corporation — and or even in Prospect where there are significant plans for the area’s main oval.

She said Adelaide Oval would be ideal for opening and closing ceremonies, but a new athletics stadium would be ideal to host the bulk of events.

“I don’t know the dimensions of the Oval so I don’t know if it could properly host athletics events,” she said.

“There are also issues around the impact it would have on cricket and football there.”

Outside of the need for a second athletics stadium in the city, Ms Cassidy said Adelaide was starting from a better place to host a Commonwealth Games than 2018 host Gold Coast.

She said there also could be an opportunity to stage some events outside of metropolitan Adelaide.