Adelaide will host one of the most famous sporting teams in the world, when the British & Irish Lions Rugby team arrives for their once-every-12-year tour of Australia in 2025, delivering another boost to the state's visitor economy.
In a significant coup, the Malinauskas Government has locked in the most crucial tour game the week before the first Test and it will bring Australian and New Zealand players together on the same team for only the second time in history.
To be played at the Adelaide Oval, this will be a marquee match-up between the Lions and an invitational team of players from Australia and New Zealand on Saturday 12 July 2025 in what is shaping up to be the unofficial "Fourth Test".
Securing a British & Irish Lions match in Adelaide will deliver an economic boost for South Australia. The last Australian tour by the British and Irish Lions in 2013 saw an estimated 30-40,000 British and Irish supporters come to Australia for the tour, generating an estimated $150 million for the Australian economy.
The historic visit will be the first to Adelaide by the British & Irish Lions in almost 140 years. They first visited Adelaide on their very first tour of Australia in 1888 when they defeated the Port Adelaide Football Club in a game of Australian Rules and smashed an Adelaide XV 28-3 in rugby.
A capacity crowd of 54,000 people is expected at the Adelaide Oval - the same venue where the Lions played in 1888.
Ever since then, Adelaide has been left off the touring itinerary and it has taken more than 12 months of promoting SA's case to the Lions and Rugby Australia by the Malinauskas Government to score this game which is expected to bring tens of thousands of visitors to SA from overseas and interstate.
The best players from England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland are selected to play for the British and Irish Lions.
They tour Australia, New Zealand and South Africa on rotation every four years while never playing a series at home in the UK or Ireland.
Following this tour, the next opportunity to see the Lions in Australia won't come until 2037.
The Lions have a keen travelling fanbase and the historic invitational Australia-New Zealand combined team promises to draw fans from interstate and across the Tasman.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics the short-term visitor arrivals from the UK increased from 48,300 in May 2013 to 81,400 in June 2013, an increase of more than 68% which they attributed to the British and Irish Lions rugby union tour.
Major events that make a significant contribution to our visitor economy for a reasonable outlay is what we are focused on.
As put by Katrine Hildyard
The Lions' visit to Adelaide will be momentous for Rugby in South Australia, and for our broader community.
To have Adelaide as a host city for the Lions – and to welcome the combined Australia-New Zealand team is incredibly exciting – for our community, for our economy and for all of the girls and boys who play rugby who will be inspired by some of the best players in the world.
We can't wait to welcome thousands of travelling Lions fans to SA to watch their team at our iconic Adelaide Oval go up against the invitational Australia-New Zealand XV.
As well as enjoying the Rugby, thousands of fans will also be able to enjoy all that South Australia has to offer.
This is such an exciting announcement. Thank you to Leon Bignell and all who have worked so hard toward SA hosting another world class sporting event.
As put by Leon Bignell
Like so many South Australians, I'd never heard of the British and Irish Lions. That all changed in 2013 when, as Minister for Tourism and Sport, I accepted an invitation from Rugby Australia to attend a Lions v Wallabies test in Brisbane.
I hadn't seen a sporting event take over a city like that since the Australian Grand Prix of the 1980's in Adelaide.
It was phenomenal. This red army of more than 20,000 Lions fans and just as many Wallabies supporters walked in unison to the game. The atmosphere inside the stadium was matched by the tone and passion outside the ground with very well-behaved fans having the biggest weekend of their lives. You could hear the cash registers ringing and the economy growing.
That night I spoke to the Lions Chairman and Rugby Australia about including Adelaide on the 2025 tour. Last year, as chair of the major events attraction committee I had lunch with the Lions CEO and Chair in London and last week I was back in the UK to discuss with the Lions how we attract as many of their fans as possible to the Adelaide game.
In the past year Premier Malinauskas has been relentless in his discussions with Rugby Australia and has convinced them that Adelaide is the perfect place to showcase rugby and an amazing place for fans from around the world to taste some of the best food and wine while they are here.
There isn't a Lions fan alive who has seen their team play in Adelaide. That, plus our many drawcards in SA, make our state the perfect place to visit for the game against the Aussies and the New Zealanders in 2025.
As put by Rugby Australia CEO, Phil Waugh
The British & Irish Lions Tour is one of the great sporting festivals – it is a real landmark of Australian and world sport.
Rugby Australia is looking forward to welcoming back the Lions for the first time in 12 years – as well as the tens of thousands of Lions fans from the northern hemisphere.
It is an exciting fixture of matches all around the country with the Lions taking on our Super Rugby franchises, three massive Test matches, and a marquee match in Adelaide featuring a combined invitational Australia-New Zealand side.
