Now, as a result of a new deal with the Moore Park venue, the SCG will continue to play a key role in Swans’ history with the club set to exclusively call the venue home for the next 30 years.
From 2017, the Swans will play all of their home matches at the SCG, ending a 12-year partnership with ANZ Stadium, which has seen the club host three games plus finals at the Homebush venue since 2002.
Speaking to SwansTV after announcing the decision at the SCG on Monday morning, Swans Chairman Andrew Pridham said the club was thrilled to be able to settle in at the venue for the next three decades.
“We’re really, really excited to think that we now have a long-term plan that will see us here at the SCG until 2046,” Pridham told SwansTV.
“It’s something we’ve been looking at for a number of years and these stadia agreements are very complex and we were very aware that members in particular were very vocal in their desire for us to play all of our games here.
“We’re delighted that we’ve been able to sit down with the SCG Trust over the past 12 months and come to the agreement that we’ve come to, which gives us a great deal of flexibility and a great deal of certainty.
“For supporters to know that we’ll be here long term and will hopefully be building some substantial facilities in and around the stadium, which I think the players will certainly be excited about in time.
“It’s a process that we’ve going through and it’s an exciting time.”
Pridham recalled the many memorable moments that have taken place at the SCG since the club arrived in Sydney in 1982, with classic finals wins and player milestones among the highlights.
“I think the ground evokes so many great memories for Swans fans,” Pridham said.
“From Tony Lockett kicking his 1300th goal (here) through to our wins in 1996 and the preliminary final in 2005 when Nick Davis kicked four goals in the last quarter.
“We’ve also unfurled two premiership flags here in 2005 and 2012, so it just has so much special memories for our fans and it’s going to be a delight to be here long term.”
With all 11 home games to be played at the SCG from the beginning of the 2017 season, the SCG is set to attract some of its biggest ever crowds during the home-and-away season.
This year the venue saw more than 41,000 fans turn out for the Swans’ Round 13 clash with Port Adelaide and also attracted more than 37,000 fans to launch Indigenous Round against Geelong on a Thursday night in round 11.
With more fans attending games in Sydney than ever before in 2014, Pridham said he expected the SCG would attract further sell-out crowds in the future.
“We can have our bigger games here, because obviously our bigger games have historically, or at least since 2002, been played at ANZ Stadium,” he said.
“That will be terrific and the impact of this we hope will be that we will have increased membership and expectations that in any given season we will have four or five sell-out games.
“That atmosphere here on a sell-out game is better than any stadium anywhere in Australia.”
Calico on show in stadium announcement
A piece of history was bestowed upon the Sydney Swans on Monday morning to mark the 30-year agreement between the club and the SCG, which will see every Swans home game played at the venue from 2017.
To celebrate the continuing relationship between the club and venue the Swans have called home since they made the move to the Harbour City in 1982, the SCG Trust presented Swans Chairman Andrew Pridham and chief executive Andrew Ireland with the original calico sign that featured on the old SCG scoreboard for every home match some 30-odd years ago.
The sign, which has since been featured in the SCG Museum, was presented to the club by SCG Trust Deputy Chairman Rod McGeoch, who said the gesture marked the significant commitment the Swans have made and will continue to make to the iconic Sydney stadium.
“In 1982, when Barry Round came and led the team out, this calico sat on our historic scoreboard,” he said.
“We think this is the day we should return it to the Swans, suitably framed to acknowledge their history at this ground, to acknowledge their history as long as it’s been and to acknowledge the significance that we see as the Trust of the commitment they’ve made to the ground today.”
