Waverley Park


Waverley Park was an Australian rules football stadium in Mulgrave, Victoria, Australia. For most of its history, its purpose was as a neutral venue and used by all Victorian-based Victorian Football League/Australian Football League clubs. However, during the 1990s it became the home ground of both the Hawthorn and St Kilda football clubs. It ceased to be used for AFL games from the 2000 season, following the opening of Docklands Stadium. It is currently used as a training venue by Hawthorn. The main grandstand and oval are listed on the Victorian Heritage Register. The seating capacity is now 6,000, down from a peak of 72,000.

Origins

Waverley Park was first conceived in 1959 when delegates from the 12 VFL clubs requested the league to find land that was suitable for the building of a new stadium. In September 1962, the VFL had secured a block of grazing and market garden land in Mulgrave. This area was chosen because it was believed that with the effects of urban sprawl and the proposed building of the South-Eastern freeway, the area would become the demographic centre of Melbourne. The VFL reportedly lobbied the state government to construct a train connection to the stadium, but that never occurred.
The original plans were for a stadium catering for up to 157,000 patrons, which would have made it one of the biggest stadiums in the world. To accommodate the large number of patrons the members' stand was to be extended around the whole ground. However, in 1982 and/or 1983 when the extensions were due to commence, the Government of Victoria refused to approve the plans for the upgrade because it would have threatened the Melbourne Cricket Ground's right to host the VFL Grand Final. Hence, no further development ever occurred and the capacity was set at just over 100,000 patrons.
The playing surface of 200 metres long and 160 metres wide was the biggest in the league. This caused some controversy and the boundary lines were repainted and goals were relocated to make the playing area a similar size to the MCG's playing surface.

Construction

Under the direction of architect Reginald E. Padey of Meldrum and Partners, work started at the site on 5 January 1966 when the VFL President Sir Kenneth Luke turned the first sod. Construction of the stadium involved the excavation of of topsoil, and the surface of the oval was lowered to a depth of from the surrounding area. The spoil was used to form the banks for some sections of the stadium.
The foundations of the K.G. Luke stand were laid in 1969 and more than of concrete terracing was laid around the ground. On 18 April 1970, Fitzroy and Geelong played the first game at Waverley Park, in front of a crowd of 25,887. However, the stadium was far from completed, with only the first level of the K.G. Luke Stand having been finished. The rest of the stadium had only been constructed to ground level.
The Public Reserve Stands encircling the rest of the stadium were finished in 1974, at a cost of $4.5 million, and the car park was extended to fit a total of 25,000 cars. Lighting was added in May 1977, at a cost of $1.2 million, in time for the first of the 1977 night-series televised matches. In 1982, a monochrome video matrix scoreboard was installed, for the first time in VFL history, displaying instant replay highlights. In 1984, the arena was re-turfed and the drainage system upgraded. Two years later a mosaic mural, commemorating many great names of VFL football, was installed on the grandstand façade above the members' entrance. During the 1988 season, automatic turnstiles were introduced at the members' entrance.

Memorable events

In its history, 732 AFL/VFL matches were played at Waverley Park, 70 of which were finals and one a grand final.
Waverley Park hosted many special events other than Australian rules football. These included:
In 1988 concrete cancer was discovered in the Southern Stand at the MCG. This provided the impetus to replace the 50-year-old stand with a state-of-the-art facility that was completed in 1992 at a cost of $150 million, subsequently named the Great Southern Stand. This affected Waverley Park's attendances as the ground once hosted many blockbuster games and finals, they were then mostly moved to the more modern, larger and more centrally located Melbourne Cricket Ground where the ground could handle up to 100,000 spectators compared to 72,000 at Waverley.
In 1999 the Australian Football League announced that it would not schedule any further matches at Waverley Park. Instead it would aim to sell the ground and its surrounding land, hoping to raise a sum of $30 million to $80 million to go towards the construction of a new stadium under construction at Docklands at the western end of the Melbourne central business district. Later the League would also argue that a portion of the income from the sale of Waverley would provide further finance for the development of AFL football as a national code in Australia. The last official AFL game was played in 1999 between Hawthorn and Sydney in front of a sell-out crowd of 72,130.
After the decision to close the venue was made by the AFL, the ground's drawbacks were highlighted. Despite an excellent playing surface and its own water storage, focus shifted to its unfavourable position, and its antiquated corporate and spectator facilities, such as the 17-year-old sepia-toned video screen. Even though Waverley Park was only 20 minutes from the Melbourne CBD and was serviced by the Monash Freeway, successive governments had failed to provide adequate public transport to the venue. The stadium's car park was large enough to service its crowds, but the access roads were incapable of dispersing them, and long delays for driving spectators were common. Spectators felt distanced from the game in the huge arena, and seating was only partly undercover giving it the unflattering nickname "Arctic Park" which was due to its location on an exposed site, with the prevailing south-westerly winds bringing rain to Melbourne's eastern suburbs directly from Port Phillip Bay.
In 2000, AFL pre-season cup matches were played at the venue, and Victorian Football League games also took place there, including finals and the grand final. Melbourne's Eastern Football League also played division 1 and division 2 Grand Finals at the venue at the conclusion of the 2000 season. The 2000 VFL Grand Final was the last official game of football played at the venue. After that game, Waverley Park was not maintained and vandals eventually broke into the site and damaged the facilities. The playing surface, once one of the best in Australia, was reduced to a field of weeds. Victorian MP Mary Delahunty called on the AFL to mow the dilapidated stadium, as it was still under their control.
On 10 December 2001 the AFL confirmed that the land was sold to housing developer Mirvac to assist in financing the construction of the Docklands Stadium. The ground was demolished starting on 11 December 2002. While often seen as something of a failure, Waverley Park actually served an important strategic purpose for the VFL/AFL. With a viable alternative venue for the Grand Final and other events, the AFL possessed a critical bargaining chip in negotiations with the Melbourne Cricket Club over MCG access.

Current status

Following its cessation as a venue for AFL football, the stadium fell into a state of disrepair, and anticipating complete demolition, the City of Greater Dandenong, on behalf of football patrons in southeast Victoria, moved quickly to nominate the whole of the facility and its grounds for heritage listing. The basis for the nomination is that the stadium was the first major stadium purpose built for Australian rules football, that its construction and ownership by the VFL provided the basis on which the league built its power base and eventual evolution to become the AFL, that it hosted the 1991 AFL Grand Final, that night-time cricket games were first held at the ground, and that the members' stand features a mural of football legends by noted artist Harold Freedman. The state-level heritage listing of Waverley Park has been cited by the executive director of Heritage Victoria as the seminal case for an understanding of the cultural heritage significance of 20th-century places.
Successful lobbying saw Heritage Victoria grant legislative protection to the site and, beginning in December 2002, portions of the stadium were demolished except for the members' stand and the members' stand mural. The surrounding car park has been replaced by suburban housing, including 1,400 new dwellings for 3,500 people. In homage to the original place and its purpose, the street layout mirrors the original car park and street names honour Waverley's patron Sir Kenneth Luke, architect Reginald Padey and other associations with football and cricket. The members' stand is visible from the nearby Monash Freeway; however, due to new noise walls being installed on the freeway alignment, the stand's visibility from the freeway has been significantly reduced.
The oval itself and the remaining section of the members stand have been redeveloped into a state-of-the-art training and administrative facility for the Hawthorn Football Club and the local community. The facility incorporates an MCG-dimension oval, the size of the playing arena having been reduced from its original size, and includes a 25-metre heated indoor swimming pool, four refrigerated ice tanks, a gymnasium with a 60-metre running track and a warm-up area with projection and screen facilities to simulate match-day conditions. The grandstand has seating for around 2,000 patrons with the seating in the top level of the grandstand having been retained.