Bellerive Oval

Bellerive Oval, currently known as Ninja Stadium for sponsorship reasons, is a cricket oval and Australian rules football ground located in Bellerive, a suburb on the eastern shore of Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. With a combination of seating and standing capacity of 19,500, it is the second-largest stadium in Tasmania, behind York Park in Launceston, which holds 21,000 spectators. Bellerive Oval is the only Tasmanian venue that regularly hosts international cricket matches.

The stadium serves as the home ground for the Tasmanian Tigers, Tasmania's state cricket team, and the Hobart Hurricanes, a Big Bash League franchise. It has hosted international Test matches since 1989 and One-Day Internationals (ODIs) since 1988.

In addition to cricket, Bellerive Oval is a secondary home ground for the Richmond Football Club, an Australian Football League (AFL) team that plays one home game per season at the venue. Significant redevelopment projects have expanded the stadium's facilities to meet the requirements of high-profile events and increase spectator comfort.

Football and cricket first started being played in the area where Bellerive Oval is now in the mid-to-late 19th century. In 1884, the first football match on record from the area was played between Carlton and Bellerive. In 1913, the piece of land located between Bellerive Beach and Church and Derwent streets was sold to the Clarence Council. One year later, the new Bellerive recreation ground was ready for use.^{[citation needed]}

The ground was largely unchanged until the mid-1980s. During this time, there was a hump in the centre of the ground, making only the top halves of players visible from the other side of the ground. There was a shed for players, located where the main pavilion now stands. There was a hill on the outer (where the hill now is) that could accommodate two rows of vehicles; the small scoreboard stood on the outer, close to where the electronic scoreboard is now, and the time clock sat about halfway up a training light tower. Until very recently,^[when?] the police booth sat in the north-east corner of the oval. A concrete cricket pitch served local junior teams until the 1956/57 season, when it was replaced by a turf wicket.^{[citation needed]}

In 1948, when the Clarence Football Club – a tenant of the ground – applied to join the Tasmanian Football League, the ground had to upgrade to TFL standards.^{[citation needed]}

Some minor upgrades were made in the 1960s: clubrooms were built in 1961 and in 1963, a small grandstand (seating about 500) and new public address system were installed.^{[citation needed]}

In 1977, Tasmania gained admission into the Sheffield Shield and the TCA planned to move to a new oval, away from its headquarters at the TCA Ground on the Domain. Bellerive Oval was chosen ahead of KGV Oval and North Hobart Oval. $2.2 million was spent building new grandstands, training nets, a hill, new surface and centre wicket. The old TCA Ground scoreboard was relocated there and the centrepiece three-level members' pavilion was constructed.^{[citation needed]}