Kardinia Park

Kardinia Park is the name given to the stadium that occupies the park of the same name in Geelong. It is the home ground and training venue of Geelong and has also hosted the grand final for the local Geelong Football League.
==Construction and early years==
Kardinia Park was first proclaimed a public park in 1872 and has it's north east corner chopped off in 1876 by the construction of the railway line between Geelong and Winchelsea. The line remains in place today. A small zoo opened in 1903 and it closed sometime between World War 1 and World War 2.
By 1911, two ovals had been established. Both hosted local football while the eastern oval hosted the Geelong VFA team from 1922 until 1925 before they moved to the West Oval in Geelong West. The progress of the construction of the venue is not known at this point.
In 1941, the Geelong VFL team moved to the eastern oval from Corio Oval when the latter was claimed by the military. In 1942 and 1943 Geelong didn't play due to travel restrictions but in 1944 they returned and stayed.
==Growing the venue==
By the 1950's the ground had two stands (names unknown) on the western side of the ground while the rest of the venue was terraced with about four rows of seating at the front. A third stand was added south of the other two at an unknown point in time.
As the pressure of large crowds increased, a new stand was built at the southern end of the ground - the original Reg Hickey Stand. Later in the 1980's the middle main stand on the west side of the ground was rebuilt to create the original Charles Brownlow Stand. The stand to the north was named the Ford Stand after Geelong's then main employer.
==21st century redevelopment==
With the Melbourne based clubs gravitating to the MCG and Docklands Stadium from their home venues, it was decided that Kardinia Park should be redeveloped to increase it's capacity in order to retain as many home games as possible instead of playing them in Melbourne. The process began in 2005 with the opening on the new Reg Hickey Stand on the eastern side of the ground. The old stand between the old Hickey Stand and the original Brownlow Stand was torn down and replaced with the Premiership Stand in 2010, and this was followed by the opening of the Players Stand in the place of the old Hickey Stand in 2013.
The Brownlow Stand was also rebuilt and incorporated in part the Ford Stand although the Fred Flanigan Room was retained. This was completed in 2017. In the meantime, terracing between the Ford Stand and the new Hickey Stand was increased and named the Gary Ablett Terrace.
==Future development==
Plans are afoot to complete the redevelopment with a new stand to replace the Ablett Terrace.
==Other uses==
Kardinia Park has hosted soccer and cricket. It also hosted the Dalai Lama in 2003.
Category:Venues