The Ground That Refused to Be Ordinary

JD Ellis was a Johannesburg councillor who provided the land in Doornfontein on which the stadium was built. The ground that opened in 1928 carried his name, and it has carried it ever since through every sponsorship and every rebuild. It is a rare thing in modern sport: a stadium named after somebody who gave something rather than somebody who bought something.

THE FIRST GROUND. The original Ellis Park was a rugby ground in the truest sense — steep, loud, and built for a city that took its rugby seriously and its opponents personally. Loftus Versfeld, the man after whom Pretoria's stadium is named and a lifetime member of the Transvaal union, died of a heart attack at Ellis Park in 1932 while watching Transvaal play Free State. Even the ground's incidental history is the history of South African rugby.

THE ALTITUDE. Doornfontein sits at roughly 1,750 metres above sea level. The effect is real and it is cumulative: the ball travels further, the air thins in the last quarter, and sides who have flown in from sea level find the final twenty minutes longer than they expected. It is not the whole of the Lions' home advantage. It is the part that cannot be coached away.

WHAT IT HAS STAGED. A Rugby World Cup final. A Super 10 final. Currie Cup finals across five decades. Springbok Tests, concerts, and in 2026 an All Blacks fixture and the arrival of Investec Champions Cup rugby. Few grounds anywhere have a fixture list with that range on it.

THE PRESENT. Under the 10bet partnership the stadium enters its next chapter, and in December 2026 it welcomes Stade Toulousain — six-time European champions — for a Champions Cup pool match. Ninety-eight years after it opened, Ellis Park is still adding firsts.