Why the Sharks need help to upgrade their stadium and changerooms, Sharks stadium upgrade latest news

There are many reasons why Shark Park (Ocean Protect Stadium) should be upgraded.

The dangerously dire amenities, its significance to the area and its limited capacity are all honourable and deserving reasons.

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But the one that really cuts, yet is rarely brought up in rugby league conversations, is that it’s a stadium that fails to accommodate women. And as we edge closer to the NRLW season, it’s more relevant than ever.

The stadium was built back in 1966 and the sports landscape has changed significantly since then. Like many of our state’s stadiums, it wasn’t built with women’s sports and women as sports fans in mind.

When it comes to rugby league, the Cronulla Sharks were actually ahead of the game when it came to women. Although they weren’t awarded a foundation licence for the inaugural year of the NRLW, they were doing a lot for the women’s game, long before the women’s professional competition was even a blueprint or notable goal at headquarters. The Sharks had a booming girls grassroots system and a NSW women’s premiership side that boasted recognisable names like Allana Ferguson, Ruan Sims, Jess Sergis, Corbin Baxter and Shontelle Stowers. In fact, in 2016, fed up that there was no clear indication of a professional women’s competition (NRLW) at that stage, the Sharks became the first club to pay their female players.

Despite their progressive start, the club’s female facilities are in a deplorable state. They could hardly be called female facilities. They’re actually the men’s facilities.

In a video posted by politician Jenny Ware, the situation was laid it bare. The women use the men’s change rooms, meaning there’s troughs and only three toilets (17 women with a nervous wee before the match – do the math, that’s a long queue), and open showers with no partitions.

“This is our bathroom. As you can see it’s made for men, which is fine because we know we have to share it on game day,” former Sharks player Emma Verran (nee Tonegato), who has since signed with the Dragons, said in the video.

“But there are only three toilets, so as you can imagine it gets a little bit hectic and then we would love to have closed off showers where you have your own personal shower and can feel comfortable in there, and I think that’s important to a lot of girls, especially the younger ones, to have their own privacy.”

Meanwhile, in a separate video Verran and Jada Taylor took Ware through the change rooms that the away team uses during a double header.

There are no bathrooms, toilets or showers with a portaloo positioned outside instead, while when it rains the room floods “a lot” according to Taylor.

“I think it’s a little bit embarrassing for us to ask people to come play against us and this is the facilities when it’s a professional sport,” Taylor said.

“It’s really embarrassing. We love having a home game but how long can we host home games if we don’t have the right facilities?”

The stadium is also not properly equipped for female fans.

A 2024 global study found that 72% of women now identify as sports fans, with more than half of those women developing their fandom in the last five years.

Sport is changing.

Our stadiums cater to an outdated version of sport.

Allianz Stadium suffered this way. Prior to its redevelopment in 2019, the (then) 45,500 stadium had 291 male toilets and 113 female. That’s almost a third of the men’s. When it was rebuilt to a 42,500 capacity in 2022, it had 475 toilets for each gender, as well as 16 universal access toilets.

Some of the new high-performance training facilities in NRL clubland have missed an opportunity to adequately accommodate women and have been constructed through a male lens. One NRL club’s new facility is being spruiked as state-of-the-art and does include locker-rooms for the women, although many have expressed whether there was adequate consultation with women or female athletes during the design phase.

There are no troughs and they have cubicles for the toilets but there’s little bench space, no powerpoints in practical places and the showers lack shelves. Many of these women are going from training direct to work and vice-versa, they have hairdryers and products etc. This is not vanity, these are the practicalities of a female athlete in 2026.

Overseas examples show just how behind the ball we are here in Australia.

There are many female specific training facilities and made-for-female-purpose stadiums being developed. NWSL Team Kansas City Current opened CPKC Stadium in 2024. That was a world first stadium that was built for a women’s team and with women’s sports fans in mind. Since then, many other women’s teams in the US have both women’s stadiums and training facilities. Manchester City earlier this year opened up a $19 million high performance centre for its women’s team. The London City Lionesses are building a $205 million high performance centre and Brighton and Hove Albion have just announced plans for a new women’s stadium – Europe’s first. In the WNBA, the Las Vegas Aces, NY Liberty and LA Sparks all have built or are constructing built-for-womens-purpose training facilities.

Shark Park’s challenges extend beyond its current state and condition. Uniquely the Stadium is privately and not government owned, which limits its ability to rely on government grants and funding.

But if there’s a big reason for government intervention and investment, it’s that it’s fundamentally not designed for women.

Just like we need to stop looking at stadiums and high performance facilities through a male lens, we also need to stop looking for reasons to do it through that lens as well.

Instead, look to the fastest growing area of the game and fan base…women.