Victoria Park, Melbourne

Victoria Park

Old Girl, VP, Vic Park
Victoria Park in 2007
Former names	Dight's Paddock Jock McHale Stadium
Location	Abbotsford, Victoria
Coordinates	37°47′54″S 144°59′47″E / 37.79833°S 144.99639°E / -37.79833; 144.99639
Owner	City of Yarra
Operator	City of Yarra
Capacity	10,000[1]
Surface	Grass
Construction
Opened	1879
Construction cost	£600[citation needed]
Architect	William Pitt[citation needed]
Tenants
Collingwood Football Club Administration & Training (1892–2005) VFL/AFL (1892–1999) VFL (2010–present) AFLW (2018–present) VFLW (2018–present) Other Teams Fitzroy Football Club (VFL) (1985–1986) Fitzroy Stars (NFL) (2010–2012) Collingwood Warriors (NSL) (1996–1997)

Victoria Park is a sports venue in Abbotsford, a suburb of Melbourne in Victoria, Australia. The stadium is oval shaped and was built to host Australian rules football and cricket matches. In the past Victoria Park featured a cycling track, tennis courts, and a baseball club that once played curtain raisers to football matches.^[2]

Victoria Park is historically notable as a former Australian Football League (known as the Victorian Football League until 1989) venue between 1892 and 1999 and headquarters of the Collingwood Football Club for 107 years until 2004.^[3] It was also a temporary home ground for the Fitzroy Football Club for the 1985 and 1986 seasons. The ground is listed on the Victorian Heritage Register and is of state heritage significance.^[4]

At its peak, from 1959 to the late 1980s, Victoria Park was the third largest of the suburban VFL stadiums after the Melbourne Cricket Ground and Princes Park. However, in the 1990s the AFL's ground consolidation policy forced clubs away from their traditional home grounds and Collingwood played their last AFL game there in 1999. Collingwood continued to use Victoria Park as a training and administration base up until 2005.^[5] The club has since returned to the venue to play AFL Women's, VFL Women's and Victorian Football League home matches.