Sport in New South Wales

Overview of sports traditions and activities in the Australian state of New South Wales

Sport in New South Wales describes participation in and attendance at organised sports events in the state of New South Wales in Australia. Sport forms an integral part of the culture of the state. New South Wales has attracted many international multi sport events including the 2000 Summer Olympics, held in Sydney. There are many professional sporting teams in New South Wales. The biggest sport in the state by a wide margin is rugby league, in which the state has 10 professional clubs in the National Rugby League. Other popular spectator sports include rugby union, cricket, Australian rules football and soccer. In terms of participation, the most popular sports in the state are netball, tennis, soccer, rugby league and touch football.

Sydneysiders view rugby league football – usually called football, footy or simply league – as a sporting tradition within the city. This stems back from the earlier colonial days of the city when the city and its culture were largely dictated by wealthy Englishmen who traditionally played and were supporters of the Rugby code of football, which was largely advertised and passed on to the people of Sydney, including the working class who in back in England largely played soccer. In the early 1900s some Rugby footballers started to agitate to receive match payments. There was widespread disagreement as to whether or not this should happen. The working class strongly believed it was a good idea and that the players should at least share in some of the money which was filling the coffers of the governing body, whilst the middle class were more hesitant to do so. However, the Rugby Football Union would not countenance payments of any sort, even 'broken time' payments for a player whilst an injury made him unable to work was deemed the 'thin edge of the wedge' for professionalism. This resulted in a split similar to what had occurred in England, and the working class formed their own competition, the Rugby League, which followed the same rules as the equivalent breakaway competition in England. The game quickly grew a working class following, and has been a Sydney tradition ever since. Rugby league is the most attended and viewed sport in the state by a wide margin. Australia's premier Men's basketball competition. The Kings won three consecutive premierships in 2002–03, 2003–04 and 2004–05, while the Hawks won in 2001. The Sydney Kings play their home games at the Sydney SuperDome in Sydney while the Illawarra Hawks play home games at Wollongong Entertainment Centre in Wollongong, the Illawarra's commercial centre. The next level below the NBL Championship is NBL1, New South Wales will be represented as the East conference from 2022 onward. This conference will be made of select teams from the Waratah League, the current premier league for clubs in New South Wales. NBL1 and Waratah League have Men's and Women's competitions. The Sydney Uni Flames are a professional women's side who play in the Women's National Basketball League.

Australian rules football, commonly known in NSW as "AFL" (after the national professional Australian Football League competition), is a developing game in most of NSW with increasing popularity. Ausplay reported that there were 69,168 regular participants in New South Wales in 2019 a figure that exceeds participation in rugby union making it the 3rd most participated football code in the state. The sport is governed by AFL NSW/ACT. Two fully professional teams are based in New South Wales, both from Sydney: the Sydney Swans and the Greater Western Sydney Giants. Formerly the South Melbourne Swans, the financially struggling club was relocated in 1982 and was renamed Sydney to capture a wider audience. After a long period with little success Sydney made the first of its six Grand Final appearances in 1996 and the first of two premierships in 2005. Since its first Grand Final appearance, Sydney has consistently averaged over 24,000 spectators to each home match, reaching a peak average home attendance of 36,612 in 1997. In 2003, Sydney drew a New South Wales record crowd of 72,393 which remains the record attendance in the history of the game for a match played outside of Victoria. The Giants, based in Western Sydney, were introduced in 2012. The two teams compete against each other in the Sydney Derby which drew a record crowd of 60,222 in 2016. The Giants have competed in the AFL Women's competition since its commencement in 2017 and the Swans have been granted a license to join in 2023. Historically the game dates back to the 1880s in Sydney with the establishment of local competitions established in 1880; however, it has struggled for marketshare against other football codes. Its popularity is highest in the Southern Riverina region closer to the Victorian border.

New South Wales is home to Australia's highest snow country, oldest skifields and largest resorts. Recreational skiing in Australia began around 1861 at Kiandra, New South Wales, when Norwegian gold miners introduced the idea to the frozen hills around the town. The first and longest surviving ski club in the world, the Kiandra Snow Shoe Club is believed to have been formed at Kiandra in that year. The Kiandra snow shoe club (now called the Kiandra Pioneer Ski Club (1861)) remains the world's first identifiable and ceaseless Ski Club. This Australian club has been continuously operating since 1861. Its origins have been recognised internationally and substantiated by the Holmenkollen Ski Museum, Norway in 2006. The discovery of gold in the mountains of America and Australia was the catalyst for the development of recreational alpine skiing. Steeper slopes and more reliable snows lie further to the south and in the 20th century, the focus of recreational skiing in New South Wales shifted southward, to the Mount Kosciuszko region. The first Kosciuszko Chalet was built at Charlotte Pass in 1930, giving relatively comfortable access to Australia's highest terrain. At 1760m, Charlotte Pass has the highest village base elevation of any Australian ski resort and can only be accessed via over snow transport in winter. The growing number of ski enthusiasts heading to Charlotte Pass led to the establishment of a cafe at Smiggin Holes around 1939, where horse drawn sleighs would deliver skiers to begin the arduous ski to the Kosciusko Chalet. It was the construction of the vast Snowy Mountains Hydro Electric Scheme from 1949 that really opened up the Snowy Mountains for large scale development of a ski industry and led to the establishment of Thredbo and Perisher as leading Australian resorts. The Construction of Guthega Dam brought skiers to the isolated Guthega district and a rope tow was installed there in 1957. Skifields up by Kosciusko's side were also established during this period, though their existence is now little realised. A rope tow was installed on Mount Northcote at the site and opened in 1954. The site proved excellent for speed skiing, but the hut was destroyed in an avalanche, which also killed one person, in 1956. Construction began at Thredbo in 1957. The last establishment of a major skifield in NSW came with the development of Mount Blue Cow in the 1980s. In 1987 the Swiss designed Skitube Alpine Railway opened to deliver skiers from Bullocks Flat, on the Alpine Way, to Perisher Valley and to Blue Cow, which also opened in 1987. In 2009 Perisher had 48 lifts covering 1,245 hectares and four village base areas: Perisher Valley, Blue Cow, Smiggin Holes and Guthega. The Kosciuszko Main Range in the Snowy Mountains of New South Wales offer some of the most challenging cross country and back country skiing in Australia, notably Watsons Crags and Mount Twynam on the steep Western Face of the Range. The Mount Jagungal wilderness area provides some of the most isolated back country ski terrain. High country huts, often a legacy of the era of cattle grazing in the mountains, provide emergency shelter in these regions.

Suncorp Super Netball features two New South Wales based teams. The New South Wales Swifts are an established club, having previously played in the ANZ Championship and the Commonwealth Bank Trophy. Giants Netball were formed when the Greater Western Sydney Giants football club were given one of the three licenses for new teams for the first season of the Super Netball league in 2017.

There are also many teams participating in other national sporting competitions based in New South Wales, mainly in Sydney and the surrounding areas. These include the Sydney Blue Sox in Australian Baseball League. The state's only major motorsport team is Albury based Brad Jones Racing.

The popular equine sports of campdrafting and polocrosse were developed in New South Wales and competitions are now held across Australia. Polocrosse is now played in many overseas countries. Rodeos are popular events for competitors and spectators alike. The most important equine events in the state and the country are held at the Australian Equine and Livestock Events Centre in Tamworth in the states New England region. Sydney was the host of the 2000 Summer Olympics and the 1938 British Empire Games. The Olympic Stadium, now known as Stadium Australia, is the scene of the annual NRL Grand Final. It also regularly hosts rugby league State of Origin as well as rugby union and soccer internationals. It hosted the final of the 2003 Rugby World Cup and the memorable soccer World Cup qualifier between Australia and Uruguay. The Sydney Cricket Ground traditionally hosts the 'New Year' cricket test match from 2 to 6 January each year. The Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race begins in Sydney Harbour on Boxing Day, while the Bathurst 12 Hour and Bathurst 1000 are held at Mount Panorama. The Sydney Autumn Racing Carnival features the richest two year old horse race in the world, the Golden Slipper Stakes, which is run in April every year. The City to Surf foot race is held every August and is one of the largest timed foot races in the world.

Sydney Olympic Park is roughly in the geographical centre of Sydney. Created for the 2000 Olympics, it is now a major sporting centre in the city.

Sydney SuperDome hosts miscellaneous events as Sydney's premier indoors facility. It has a maximum capacity of 21,000.

Stadium Australia is Sydney's largest stadium. Built for the 2000 Olympics, it now hosts big events such as the NRL Grand Final, the rugby league State of Origin and rugby union and soccer internationals. The venue is the home ground of NRL teams, the Canterbury Bankstown Bulldogs and the South Sydney Rabbitohs and serves as an occasional home ground for the Parramatta Eels. Stadium Australia also hosts a number of Sydney Swans home games and the occasional domestic cricket one day match.

There are various other sporting and recreational facilities in the centre including another indoor arena, tennis centre, aquatic centre, athletics centre, hockey centre, archery centre, as well as the Sydney Showground. From 2009 until 2016, the area hosted a motor race in the form of the Sydney 500 on a street circuit within the former Olympic grounds.

The Sydney Football Stadium was designed for the use of rugby league and is now also used for rugby union and soccer. The Sydney Roosters, the NSW Waratahs and Sydney FC soccer team use it as their home ground. The Wests Tigers use the stadium part time as a home ground. Its predecessor hosted the 2005–06 A League grand final won by Sydney FC and rugby league grand finals from 1988 until 1998.

The Sydney Cricket Ground is mainly used for cricket games and Aussie rules matches. It is home to the Sydney Swans and NSW Blues. The ground held over 1000 rugby league first grade matches in its history but is rarely used anymore.