Outdoors, there are floodlit grass and all-weather pitches, used for soccer, rugby union, Gaelic games, and hockey.

The most notable performance came in the hammer throw on 3 July 1984, when the world record was broken six times in one evening by Yuriy Sedykh and Sergey Litvinov.

Rugby matches were mostly played at Cork Park, or occasionally at the Mardyke cricket ground to its east, which was enclosed but available seldom and at a high charge.

[5] UCC rented the Western Pitch to rugby, soccer, hockey and hurling clubs in the city for a 15% cut of the gate receipts.

[11] A crowd of 18,000 watched a friendly match in 1939 between Ireland and Hungary, the first international arranged by the FAI to be played outside Dublin.