Richmond FC reveals designs for $65 million Punt Road Oval redevelopment
The AFL’s Richmond FC has unveiled updated designs for its planned $65 million redevelopment of its traditional home at Melbourne’s Punt Road Oval.
The plan, which will see the Tigers remain in their heartland at Punt Road Oval - their home venue for more than 135 years - will see the ground’s Jack Dyer Stand, which was built in 1914, demolished to make way for the new facility, while the oval will be expanded.
As revealed in November last year, the new Jack Dyer Stand will be built on the club’s current carpark and feature two levels of seating, including some undercover, boosting the ground’s capacity to 8,000.
The new structure will also house enhanced facilities for the AFL and AFLW teams, offices, function space, underground carparking for 280 vehicles and community spaces for the Bachar Houli Foundation and Richmond’s indigenous programs.
The playing field will be realigned and expanded, into the footprint of the existing grandstand, to be the same dimensions as the MCG.
A new ‘town square’ area will also be incorporated into the project, creating an area for Tigers fans to congregate before home games.
The AFL had previously deemed the Jack Dyer Stand unsafe, reducing the ground’s capacity to less than 3,000 for AFLW matches, with spectators unable to occupy the historic structure.
Richmond Chief Executive, Brendon Gale said the club investigated retaining the Jack Dyer Stand, which the National Trust Victoria say is of “architectural, historic and social significance”, but that the current structure is “basically condemned” and the cost of refurbishment is prohibitive.
Bricks from the historic stand will be built into external paths, while the development will stretch into Yarra Park towards where the MCG’s drop-in cricket pitches are situated.
Richmond has secured $30 million of Victorian Government funding and will ramp up fundraising through the Fighting Tiger Fund to secure the balance, with final planning expected to be finished early next year.
If the project is approved, the club hopes the new facility will be completed in time for the 2024 season, with the Tigers AFLW and VFL teams to play all home games at the venue.
The venue, which sits just a few hundred metres from the MCG, was last updated in 2011 with the addition of futuristic administration building.
In 2016, the Club proposed expanding Punt Road Oval into a 40,000 seat venue.
Images: Concepts for the Punt Road Oval redevelopment.
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