Moorabbin Oval

History

In 1951, the growing City of Moorabbin committed to developing a fenced football venue which was up to Victorian Football Association standards to be used by the Moorabbin Football Club. The strong club had been admitted from the Federal District League to the VFA in 1951, and its continued admission was contingent on the council developing Moorabbin Oval for its use. The venue became one of the highest quality venues in the Association, and was noted for having the largest playing surface in the Association, similar in size to the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

Starting from 1960, the Moorabbin Council worked actively to bring VFL football to the venue. After it was found that the VFL was unlikely to admit the Moorabbin Football Club as a new team, the council began negotiating for existing VFL clubs, many of which were dissatisfied with their home grounds at the time, to move to Moorabbin. In 1963, both Richmond and Fitzroy were approached, and then in early 1964, the council came to an agreement with the St Kilda Football Club. St Kilda relocated its training, playing and administrative base from the St Kilda Cricket Ground to Moorabbin Oval at the end of the 1964 season.

The council invested a further £100,000 to bring the venue to VFL standards and expand its capacity to 50,000. The St Kilda Football Club signed a 75-year - £5,000 per year (initially) deal for the ground, under which it became ground manager, and committed to invest £120,000 in establishing a licensed social club and to invest £375,000 for ground improvements over the first 45 years of the deal (a period which expired at approximately the end of 2009). The Moorabbin Football Club, then the defending VFA premiers, supported the move and attempted an amalgamation with St Kilda, actions which resulted in its suspension from the VFA. A new grandstand was finished before the 1965 VFL season. The St Kilda Football Club completed its financial obligation to make ground improvements prior to the end of 2009, including redeveloping the G.G. Huggins Stand into the main training and administration base for the club when home games at Moorabbin ceased in 1992. The 75-year deal precludes Moorabbin Oval from being sold until approximately 2039.

St Kilda Football Club

St Kilda Football Club's move to Moorabbin Oval was seen as highly successful. In its first season at the new ground the club played in front of capacity crowds. The Saints' first ever home game at Moorabbin attracted a record crowd of 51,370 against Collingwood in Round 1, 1965, a record that was never broken. When it was first used, Moorabbin Oval was the third largest ground by capacity in metropolitan Melbourne after the Melbourne Cricket Ground and Princes Park Football Ground; it was relegated to fourth place following the opening of VFL Park in 1970.

St Kilda ceased playing home games at Moorabbin Oval after 1992 and began playing home fixtures at Waverley Park, as part of the AFL's grounds rationalization strategy of the early 1990s; the club received $430,000 upfront and $120,000 per year for three years from the AFL as part of the change, which helped to clear some of the club's debt. St Kilda's final home game for premiership points at Moorabbin Oval was the Round 20 match on 1 August 1992, an 18-point win over the Fitzroy Lions in front of 27,736.

The St Kilda Football Club played 254 matches for premiership points at Moorabbin Oval between 1965 and 1992, with an average attendance of 21,232. In the 1970s and early 1980s, when St Kilda generally had weak teams, the club was famous for deliberately overwatering the ground to turn the surface into a mudheap, in an attempt to nullify the superior skills of their opponents.

After home games ceased being played at Moorabbin Oval, the club maintained its training and administrative base at the ground. The ground was extensively renovated to provide training, administration and entertainment facilities within the Huggins Stand and a heritage museum. Moorabbin Oval remains the club's training, administration and entertainment base. The G.G. Huggins Stand has three internal floors that contain player rooms, a fully equipped player gymnasium, football department meeting rooms, administration offices, a membership department, gaming room and bar, the Trevor Barker Room (a function room with a bar), club shop, trophy and memorabilia display areas and other facilities.

In 2007, the relationship between the club and the City of Kingston deteriorated, and St Kilda announced that it would move its primary administrative and training base away from Moorabbin, despite still having 33 years remaining on its lease. A new facility was built at Belvedere Park in Seaford, approximately 21 kilometers south of Moorabbin; the development was a St Kilda Football Club development in conjunction with the Frankston City Council, the State Government Of Victoria and the AFL. St Kilda moved to the Seaford base after the 2010 season; but, the club still manages Moorabbin Oval under its original lease, and uses it as a retail, museum and entertainment venue, and occasional training venue.

The ground will undergo an $8M redevelopment in 2015 and 2016, with the intention of making it the primary community football ground in south-eastern Melbourne from 2017. It will serve as the primary home ground for the Sandringham Dragons, the Southern Football League, and as the administrative centre for football development in the south-east.

Melbourne Reds

Moorabbin Oval was the home of the Melbourne Reds in the former Australian Baseball League from 1994 to 1999.

VFL/AFL Records

Grandstands

Naming rights

In popular culture

An abandoned Moorabbin Oval was the site of a police targeting sniper in Season 1 Episode 3 of the Melbourne-based police drama Rush.