Blundstone Arena

Bellerive Oval

Blundstone Arena
Australia vs England cricket ODI, 2005
Location	Bellerive, Tasmania
Coordinates	42°52′38″S 147°22′25″E / 42.87722°S 147.37361°E / -42.87722; 147.37361Coordinates: 42°52′38″S 147°22′25″E / 42.87722°S 147.37361°E / -42.87722; 147.37361
Owner	Clarence City Council
Operator	Tasmanian Cricket Association (TCA)
Capacity	20,000
Field size	175 x 135 metres
Surface	Grass
Construction
Broke ground	1913
Opened	1914
Construction cost	Unknown
Architect	Various
Tenants
Tasmanian Tigers (Cricket) Clarence Roos (TSL) Hobart Hurricanes (BBL) Hobart Hurricanes (WBBL) North Melbourne Football Club (AFL)
Website
www.blundstonearena.com.au
Ground information
End names
Church Street End River End
International information
First Test	16-20 December 1989: Australia v Sri Lanka
Last Test	10-14 December 2015: Australia v West Indies
First ODI	12 January 1988: New Zealand v Sri Lanka
Last ODI	14 March 2015: Australia v Scotland
First T20I	10 February 2010: Australia v West Indies
Last T20I	14 January 2014: Australia v England
As of 20th December 2015 Source: Cricinfo

Bellerive Oval (sponsored name Blundstone Arena as of 2016^[update]) is a cricket and Australian rules football ground located in Bellerive, a suburb on the eastern shore of Hobart, Tasmania. It is the only venue in Tasmania which hosts international cricket matches, and has a spectator capacity of 20,000.

The venue is best known as the home ground for the state cricket teams, the Tasmanian Tigers and Hobart Hurricanes, and as a venue for international Test matches since 1989 and one-day matches since 1988. The stadium has undergone significant redevelopment to accommodate such events.

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 the now Beach, Church and Derwent streets was sold to the Clarence council. One year later, the new Bellerive recreation ground was ready for use.

The ground barely changed from then until the mid-1980s. During this time the ground had a hump in the centre of the ground making only the top half 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. The police booth sat, until very recently, in the north-east corner of the oval. A concrete cricket pitch served for local junior teams until the 1956/57 season, when it was replaced by a turf wicket.

In 1948 The Clarence Football Club, a tenant of the ground, applied to join the Tasmanian Football League, and the ground had to upgrade to TFL standards.