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 Interactive map of Princes Park IKON Park | |
| Full name | Carlton Recreation Ground |
|---|---|
| Former names | Princes Oval (1886–1897) Princes Park (1897–1994) Optus Oval (1994–2006) MC Labour Park (2007–2008) Visy Park (2009–2015) IKON Park (2015–present) |
| Location | Princes Park,Carlton North, Victoria |
| Coordinates | 37°47′2″S144°57′42″E / 37.78389°S 144.96167°E /-37.78389; 144.96167 |
| Owner | City of Melbourne |
| Operator | Carlton Football Club |
| Capacity | 13,000(since 2023)[1][2] |
| Record attendance | 62,986 (1945 VFL grand final) |
| Surface | Grass |
| Construction | |
| Broke ground | 1892 |
| Opened | 1897 |
| Tenants | |
Administration & Training (1897–present)
Northern Blues (VFL) (2012–2019)
Carlton Soccer Club (1997–1999) Balmain Tigers (NSWRL) (1994) Melbourne Storm (Administration & Training) (2006–2010) Melbourne Rebels (Administration & Training) (2011–2015) | |
Princes Park (also known asIkon Park undernaming rights) is anAustralian rules football ground located inside thePrinces Park precinct in the innerMelbourne suburb ofCarlton North. Officially known as theCarlton Recreation Ground, it is a historic venue, having beenCarlton Football Club's VFL/AFL home ground from 1897.[3]
At its highest usage, the ground had a nominal capacity of 35,000, making it the third largest Australian rules football venue in Melbourne after theMelbourne Cricket Ground andDocklands Stadium. Princes Park hosted threegrand finals during World War II, with a record attendance of 62,986 at the1945 VFL grand final between Carlton andSouth Melbourne. After 2005, when the ground hosted its lastAustralian Football League (AFL) game, two stands were removed and replaced with an indoor training facility and administration building, reducing the capacity. The venue reached capacity (24,500) for the inauguralAFL Women's match betweenCarlton andCollingwood in 2017.[4] Subsequent renovations and modernisation of the ground and surrounding precinct have reduced Ikon Park's capacity to approximately 13,000.[3]
The Carlton Football Club (CFC) had been playing in Princes Park as early as 1865.[5] In the 1880s football and cricket were played on separate grounds and as early as 1885 the Carlton Cricket Club (CCC) which played elsewhere in Princes Park fought for exclusive access to it.[6] In 1886, the CFC built its home ground, Princes Oval, specifically for football though it lacked facilities for spectators of other football club grounds.[7] In response to the construction of the football ground, the Carlton Cricket Club which had a separate oval within the park lobbied the Minister of Lands to remove the football ground from the park.[8]
The cricket club, unsuccessful in seeking to access the oval, began to look elsewhere for a permanent venue and the football ground was however retained in situ.[9] However the dispute between the two clubs over occupancy of the park and the legitimacy of the football ground would continue for years. Permissive occupancy of Princes Park was granted to CFC and CCC simultaneously in 1889.[10]
It was Carlton Football Club's home ground during the inaugural season of the VFL/AFL in 1897.[11] The club went on to win 673 of its 962 VFL/AFL games at the venue.[12] The Alderman Gardiner Stand was designed in 1903 and completed in stages between 1909 and 1913, as a mostly iron stand with original cast iron columns still in place. The Robert Heatley Stand was officially opened by Alderman Sir William Brunton on Saturday, 7 May 1932.[13]
During World War II, Princes Park hosted threeVFL grand finals – in1942,1943, and1945. (The 1944 match was played at theJunction Oval.) The 1945 grand final, between Carlton andSouth Melbourne, attracted a record crowd of 62,986. Three weeks earlier, the semi-final between Carlton andNorth Melbourne had attracted 54,846 people. Those were the only two crowds of over 50,000 in the venue's history. The record home-and-away (i.e., non-finals) crowd was set in1963, when 47,514 attended a match between Carlton and Geelong.[14]
In 1952, Princes Park was originally selected to be the main stadium for the1956 Melbourne Olympics, which would have resulted in a major redevelopment to accommodate up to 100,000 spectators. It was also expected that VFL finals would be transferred to the ground after the upgrade. However, in early 1953 after achange of government, the Olympic Organising Committee changed its decision, instead redeveloping the Melbourne Cricket Ground for the Olympics.[15][16]
Princes Park was the venue for the secondAshes test of the1992 Great Britain Lions tour, in which the visitors defeated Australia 33–10. In 1994, theBalmain Tigers played twoNew South Wales Rugby League premiership games at Princes Park.[17] Work on the Legends Stand began in 1995 and was completed for opening on 25 April 1997. The roof, with its curved modern structure, ensured that the oval was now enclosed with a roof all the way around its circumference.
In 2005, it was decided to discontinue the use of the ground for AFL home and away games. A farewell AFL game was played at Princes Park on Saturday 21 May 2005. The game was contested betweenCarlton andMelbourne. It was the last of the suburban grounds in Melbourne to be used in theAFL. The result was an 18-point win to Melbourne. Also in the same year, the ground hosted matches from theAustralian Football Multicultural Cup as well as finals for the2005 Australian Football International Cup.
In January 2007,Graham Smorgon, then-president of the Carlton Football Club, announced aA$67 million redevelopment proposal involving the demolition of most of the stands, returning much of the ground to parkland and the establishment of club training facilities and community centre.[18] On 7 June 2007 it was announced that the stadium would receive aA$15.7m redevelopment to provide the Carlton with elite training and administration facilities. The proposed redevelopment incorporated a gymnasium, weights and stretch areas, a 4-lane, 25-metre indoor heated pool, medical offices and rehabilitation/treatment spaces, football administration offices, lecture theatre and meeting rooms and additional changing room facilities.[19]
The redevelopment of the $18 million training facility at Ikon Park was completed in 2010 on the collaboration of working closely with federal, state and local governments, along with the AFL, to deliver a world-class training and administration facility.[20]
The inaugural match of theAFL Women's competition was held at the ground in February 2017. The game, featuring Carlton and Collingwood, attracted a capacity crowd of 24,568.[4] The venue hosted the2018 AFL Women's Grand Final, which saw the Western Bulldogs defeat Brisbane 27 to 21 in front of a crowd of 7,083.[21] The success of the AFL Women's competition resulted in both state and federal governments allocating funding towards enhancement of the stadium's facilities, to enable it to become the home ofwomen's football in Victoria.
TheVictorian government committed $20 million in April 2018 to cater for the growth of women's football, which was followed the next year by $15 million from thefederal government.[22][23] The joint funding allows the venue to host a high performance women's training facility, with an upgraded oval, women's coaching education hub, sports injury prevention and research centre and allied health centre.[23] Construction of the upgrades commenced in January 2021.[24]
The training and administration building was refurbished, the Pratt Stand was demolished to make way for a match-day pavilion containing changing-rooms, high-performance areas, an indoor training field measuring 25m x 50m, broadcast-quality lighting, expanded retail facilities, a new café and function and events centre.[24][25] The bulk of the redevelopment was completed in August 2022, with the match-day pavilion housing additional changerooms and function centre and event space completed the following month.[26] The2023 AFL Women's Grand Final was held at Ikon Park on 3 December 2023, which saw Brisbane defeat North Melbourne in front of a crowd of 12,616.[27]
Public transport to the venue is primarily by tram alongRoyal Parade directly adjoining the ground, or alongLygon Street 700 metres east of the ground. It is served byRoyal Park railway station 1.1 kilometres to the west.
The ground became known asOptus Oval in November 1993 due to anaming rights deal with telecommunications companyOptus. In April 2006, it was announced that the naming rights for the stadium had once again been awarded, this time for a two-year term, during which the stadium was known asMC Labour Park. It was later re-namedVisy Park. Since 2015, the ground has been commercially been known asIkon Park.[28]
Tenants of the ground for VFL/AFL home matches have been:
The ground has hostedVFA/VFL grand finals on and off from 1990 to 2007 and again from 2019. Carlton'sreserves team plays its VFL matches at the ground; and from 2012 until the dissolution of their affiliation in 2020, theNorthern Blues, Carlton'sVFL-affiliate, split their home games between Princes Park andPreston City Oval. From 2007 until 2010, the ground was the home ground of theCollingwood reserves, which was ironic considering that Collingwood and Carlton are bitter rivals in the AFL. Carlton's senior team has continued to play some pre-season and practice matches at the ground since it stopped playing premiership matches there.
Carlton'sAFL Women's (AFLW) team plays its matches at the venue, as have some other clubs for specific matches.
The venue's most notable alternative use was as a cricket ground. The ground has hosted sevenfirst-class cricket matches, including threeSheffield Shield games,[38] and twoList A matches.[39] Until 2000, the ground was the home of theCarlton Cricket Club in theVictorian Premier/District Cricket competition; in 2000, the club moved to the No. 1 Oval in the widerPrinces Park area to enable the football club unlimited access to the venue for year-round training.[40]
TheBalmain Tigers took two games away from their traditional homeLeichhardt Oval to Princes Park in the1994 Winfield Cup. The higher crowd Balmain got was 14,762, when theBrisbane Broncos beat Balmain 36–14 in round 7 withSteve Renouf scoring 4 tries.[41] From the 2006 NRL season onwards, the venue became the administrative headquarters for theMelbourne Storm rugby league club; the club relocated to the temporary home while plans were being made for the construction of anew purpose-built rectangular stadium next to the then-current Melbourne Storm home ground,Olympic Park Stadium.
The stadium was the home ground for now defunctAssociation football clubCarlton SC. In December 2023,A-League clubMelbourne City hostedChinese Super League clubZhejiang in theAFC Champions League due to scheduling conflicts at its usual home ground.[42]
Other sports,boxing andrugby, have also been played there. The ground was also host to a production of theoperaAida.
