North Port Oval, also known as the Port Melbourne Cricket Ground or by the sponsored name ETU Stadium, is an

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

and

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

stadium A stadium ( : stadiums or stadia) is a place or venue for (mostly) outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage either partly or completely surrounded by a tiered structure designed to allow spectators to stand o ...

located in

Port Melbourne Port Melbourne is an inner-city List of Melbourne suburbs, suburb in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, south-west of Melbourne's Melbourne central business district, Central Business District, located within the Cities of ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. The capacity of the venue is 6,000 people. It is home to both th
Port Melbourne Cricket Club
and the

Port Melbourne Football Club The Port Melbourne Football Club, nicknamed The Borough, is an Australian rules football club based in the inner-Melbourne suburb of Port Melbourne. The club was founded in 1874 and has been competing in the Victorian Football Association/Leag ...

. The ground has historically been one of the

Victorian Football League The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football league in Australia serving as one of the second-tier regional semi-professional competitions which sit underneath the fully professional Australian Football League (AFL). It ...

primary venues. The ground has hosted a total of seven VFA/VFL top division Grand Finals: in

1931 Events January * January 2 – South Dakota native Ernest Lawrence invents the cyclotron, used to accelerate particles to study nuclear physics. * January 4 – German pilot Elly Beinhorn begins her flight to Africa. * January 22 – Sir I ...

1963 Events January * January 1 – Bogle–Chandler case: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation scientist Dr. Gilbert Bogle and Mrs. Margaret Chandler are found dead (presumed poisoned), in bushland near the Lane Cov ...

, 1964,

1965 Events January–February * January 14 – The Prime Minister of Northern Ireland and the Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland meet for the first time in 43 years. * January 20 ** Lyndon B. Johnson is Second inauguration of Lyndo ...

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

, 1998 and 1999. In most years from 1988 until 2019, it served as a central ground which hosted most finals matches in the first three weeks of finals; and from 1988 until 1991 served as a neutral central ground at which the majority of the

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

's telecast matches were played. The crowd record estimated to be 32,000 witnessed the 1953 Sunday Amateur League Grand Final between Montague and Carlton; the ground's highest VFA crowd of 26,000 was set at the 1964 Division 1 Grand Final between Port Melbourne and Williamstown. On 12 November 1927 the foundation stone for the main grandstand was laid by the Mayor of the

City of Port Melbourne The City of Port Melbourne was a local government area about southwest of Melbourne, the state capital of Victoria, Australia, on the south bank of the Yarra River. The city covered an area of , and existed from 1860 until 1994. The council a ...

, Cr. A.Tucker JP. In the 1970s the main grandstand was named the Norman L Goss Stand in honour of long-time Port Melbourne Football Club administrator Norm Goss Sr. On 30 May 2015 the redevelopment of the oval and facilities was officially opened by Mayor Cr. A.Stevens and Hon. Martin Foley MP (Member for Albert Park), with funding from

City of Port Phillip The City of Port Phillip is a local government area of Victoria, Australia on the northern shores of Port Phillip, south of Melbourne's central business district. It has an area of 20.7 km² and had a population of 113,200 in June 2018. P ...

, the

AFL AFL may refer to: Sports * American Football League (AFL), a name shared by several separate and unrelated professional American football leagues: ** American Football League (1926) (a.k.a. "AFL I"), first rival of the National Football Leagu ...

AFL Victoria AFL Victoria (formerly Football Victoria) is the state-level sport governing body for Australian rules football in the state of Victoria, Australia. Under the organisation's jurisdiction fall 115 leagues — including the Victorian Football Le ...

, and

Victorian Government The Victoria State Government, also referred to as just the Victorian Government, is the state-level authority for Victoria, Australia. Like all state governments, it is formed by three independent branches: the executive, the judicial, and th ...

. The ground is now also home to the Sandridge Events Centre, located at the Woodriff St end of the ground. In 2014, the ends of the ground were renamed to honour of the Port Melbourne Football Club's two champion goalkickers, Fred Cook (1210 goals) and

Bob Bonnett Robert "Bob" Bonnett (1933 – 11 May 2018) was an Australian rules footballer who played with the Port Melbourne Football Club in the Victorian Football Association (VFA) in the 1950s and 1960s. A full-forward from the Port Melbourne area, Bon ...

(933 goals). The Woodruff St end is known as the Fred Cook End, and the Williamstown Rd end is known as the Bob Bonnett end. The ground has been known by several sponsored names during the 21st century. It is presently known as ETU Stadium under a sponsorship deal with the

Electrical Trades Union of Australia The Electrical Trades Union of Australia (ETU) is an Australian trade union. The ETU is a division of the Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union (CEPU), and is the largest of the three divisions. Under State Government laws, the union ...

. Under its longest-lasting name, it was known as TEAC Oval from 2000 until 2011. It has previously had short term naming rights deals lasting only the end of the home and away season and the finals as Fortburn Stadium in 2017 and Stannards Stadium in 2018; and for the full season in 2019 as Adcon Stadium. Light towers were installed at the ground in 2022 and were first used for a

VFLW VFL Women's (VFLW) is the major state-level women's Australian rules football league in Victoria. The league initially comprised the six premier division clubs and the top four division 1 clubs from the now-defunct Victorian Women's Football Le ...

game between Port Melbourne and the

Darebin Falcons The Darebin Women's Sports Club, nicknamed the Falcons, is based in the northern suburbs of Melbourne and primarily notable for its Australian rules football team which competes in the highest-level Victorian state league – the VFL Women's (VF ...

on 28 May, 2022. North Port Oval hosted its first

AFLW AFL Women's (AFLW) is Australia's national semi-professional Australian rules football league for female players. The first season of the league in February and March 2017 had eight teams; the league expanded to 10 teams in the 2019 season, 1 ...

match on 4 September, 2022 when took on .

References

External links

Victorian Football League grounds Cricket grounds in Australia Sports venues in Melbourne Sport in the City of Port Phillip Buildings and structures in the City of Port Phillip {{VictoriaAU-struct-stub