Kardinia Park (known under naming rights as GMHBA Stadium, and commonly nicknamed the Cattery) is a stadium located within Kardinia Park in the Victorian suburb of South Geelong. It is primarily used for Australian rules football as the home ground of the Geelong Football Club, which competes in the Australian Football League (AFL).
The stadium was built in 1941 and is owned and operated by the Kardinia Park Stadium Trust. It is the largest stadium by capacity in regional Australia and the third-largest in Victoria (behind the Melbourne Cricket Ground and Docklands Stadium).
In addition to Geelong in the AFL, the venue has regularly hosted the Geelong Football Netball League (GFNL) grand final. It has also been used for cricket as a secondary home ground for the Melbourne Renegades in the Big Bash League (BBL).
Australian rules football
Early years Football has been played on Kardinia Park since the 19th century, and prior to the 1940s, Kardinia Park was the secondary football venue in the city of Geelong; Corio Oval was the primary venue, and the Geelong Football Club played its Victorian Football League games at that venue until 1940. Kardinia Park served as the home ground for the Geelong (A.) Football Club in the Victorian Football Association from 1922 until 1925, before that club moved to the Western Oval in Geelong West; local and district football was played regularly on the ground.
The Geelong Football Club began playing its home games at Kardinia Park in 1941 after Corio Oval was commandeered by the military during World War II, and it became its permanent home venue thereafter.
Recent history On 23 May 2002, Kardinia Park hosted a visit from the Dalai Lama, who again visited the stadium in June 2007.
Kardinia Park is regarded as a proverbial graveyard for teams playing against Geelong, which has an especially good record at the ground. Geelong did not lose a single match played at the venue between 26 August 2007 and 27 August 2011. Geelong's Jimmy Bartel credited the home-field advantage to the fact that Geelong is one of the few clubs which still practises on the same field that it plays on.
On 22 June 2011, it was announced the stadium would have a new name in 2012. After 10 years as naming rights sponsor of Skilled Stadium, Skilled Group decided to relinquish these rights as of 31 October 2011. Previous names of the stadium as results of sponsorship deals have been Skilled Stadium, Shell Stadium and Baytec Stadium; however it was only called Baytec Stadium for less than two months, and only one pre-season match was played there under the name. The stadium is nicknamed "The Cattery" by the club's supporters.
On 30 July 2011, Geelong recorded its largest ever victory, and the second-largest victory in V/AFL history when it defeated by 186 points. The Cats' score of 37.11 (233) was their second-highest score in club history, and the highest ever score recorded at Kardinia Park.
Floodlights were installed prior to the 2013 AFL season, and the venue staged its first night match during the season.
On 7 September 2013, Kardinia Park hosted its first ever AFL Final, a qualifying final against Fremantle Dockers, with Geelong losing the game 87–72.
In its current layout Kardinia Park consists of the following seating areas: the Reg Hickey Stand, Players Stand, Premiership Stand, Brownlow Stand and the new Joel Selwood Stand, with the Gary Ablett Terrace standing room section located within the Selwood stand.
On 4 July 2021, the venue hosted its 689th V/AFL match, but its first ever AFL home and away fixture not involving Geelong, as Sydney Swans hosted West Coast Eagles due to the COVID-19 pandemic in New South Wales causing a lockdown in the Greater Sydney area. Sydney won 118–26 with the attendance posted of 9,520.
Cricket In 2016, it was announced that international cricket would be played at the ground for the first time. The ground hosted second T20 International between Australia and Sri Lanka on 19 February. The ground witnessed memorable match between two nations, where Sri Lanka won the match by 2 wickets at the end. Sri Lanka chased 173 runs at the last ball of the match.
On 3 January 2018 the ground hosted a Women's Big Bash League and Big Bash League double header with the Melbourne Renegades taking on the Sydney Sixers with the Renegades winning in both matches. The Renegades typically host up to two home games per season at the stadium, often at the start of their season.
The ground was to be used in the 2020 ICC T20 World Cup. However, due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the tournament was postponed to October 2021 with United Arab Emirates and Oman hosting instead of Australia who hosted the 2022 ICC T20 World Cup instead.
Football In August 2019, it was announced that new A-League club Western United would play the majority of home matches at Kardinia Park for the upcoming 2019/20 season and for a further two or three years. The club had planned to play most home matches at Kardinia Park until moving into their proposed new stadium in Tarneit in Melbourne's West. Their first game at the ground was a 1–1 draw with Perth Glory in front of 6,088 on 19 October 2019. Western United last played matches at Kardinia Park in December 2021.
Kardinia Park was included in the Australia 2022 FIFA World Cup bid, with a proposed upgrade to 44,000 seats analogous to the later proposed stage 5 of redevelopment, with the new multi tiered stand stretching all the way from the southern end, around the western side and the northern Ablett stand, however the bid lost out to Qatar.
After a seven-year gap between Melbourne Victory's first match at the stadium, a 2007 A-League Pre-Season Challenge Cup match against Newcastle Jets and their second, a 2014 AFC Champions League qualifying play-off against Thai side Muangthong United, the ground hosted its first-ever A-League premiership match in 2015 when Victory played Perth Glory FC in round 14 of the 2014–15 A-League season with an attendance of 21,289 as the first match of a three-year deal to bring one Victory fixture per season to Geelong.Opening month of A-League season 10 features a series of blockbuster matches, Fox Sports Australia, 12 June 2014 The second match drew 14,268 fans to an exciting six-goal, come-from-behind draw by the Victory against Central Coast Mariners in January 2016,Central Coast, Victory play out A-League classic Football Federation Australia official website, John Greco, 8 January 2016 while the third was held on 2 January 2017 with Newcastle Jets as the visiting team, when a crowd of 14,081 witnessed Besart Berisha overtake Archie Thompson's all-time A-League scoring record in a 4–2 win for the Victory.Record for Berisha as Victory trounce Jets Melbourne Victory Official Website, John Greco, 2 January 2017 Victory and the stadium trust agreed to extend the deal by two more years in 2017.Geelong’s Kardinia Park to host more Melbourne Victory A-League games, Geelong Advertiser, Shane Fowles, 20 June 2017
European Champions League finalists Atlético Madrid played Melbourne Victory in a friendly match at the stadium on 31 July 2016. Melbourne Victory won 1–0.Victory to play Atlético de Madrid in Geelong Melbourne Victory official website, 16 June 2016
The stadium has also played host to one full men's international match on 30 December 2014, a pre-tournament friendly between Bahrain and Saudi Arabia prior to the 2015 AFC Asian Cup hosted by Australia, which ended as a 4–1 win for Bahrain.Bahrain put four past Saudi Arabia in Geelong 31 December 2014, Roy Ward, Sydney Morning Herald
The Australian women's national team, the Matildas, won a friendly match against China 5–1 on 26 November 2017, attracting a crowd of 6,338 even with a thunderstorm which forced a delay to the match of half an hour.Sam Kerr scores two as Matildas cap season with 5–1 win over China, The Australian, 27 November 2017
Other uses During the late 1920s and early 1930s when Motorcycle speedway was becoming popular throughout Australia, Kardinia Park was home to a dirt track speedway known as the Geelong Velodrome. The Velodrome hosted the inaugural Victorian Solo Speedway Championship in 1926/27 and followed up with the second championship held in 1927/28. Both championships were won by Billy Pilgrim.
On 4 March 2022, American band Foo Fighters performed at the venue marking the first stadium show in the country after the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia.
Redevelopments
Over a twenty-year period between 2003 and 2023, Kardinia Park underwent an extensive redevelopment of its grandstands, spectator facilities and interior features. The first stage of the redevelopment came in the form 28 million redevelopment of the stadium, announced in 2003. $13.5 million in funding originated from the Victorian Government, $4.5 million from the Geelong Football Club, and $2 million from the AFL. The redeveloped ground was opened on 1 May 2005 during the first home game of the 2005 season. It included a new western entry and membership area, as well as the five-level wing-side grandstand with a capacity of 6,098 spectators on the eastern side of the stadium.
A favourite for the honour of the naming of the new stand was Bob Davis, coach of the Cats' premiership side in 1963. On 15 June 2005, City of Greater Geelong councillors granted the club its wish to change the name of the new eastern stand to the Reg Hickey Stand, while the southern stand became the Doug Wade Stand. The northern terrace became known as the Gary Ablett Terrace while the western gate was renamed the Bob Davis Gate.
In September 2007, Kardinia Park received a further total of $25 million towards the second stage of redevelopment in demolishing the Ross Drew Stand on the south western side of the ground. Funding for the project included $14 million from the federal government and $6 million from the Victorian government. The new stand, known as the Premiership Stand, features seating for 4,714 supporters, including up to 800 corporate guests on match days. The stand opened on 10 April 2010 and was officially unveiled in round four of the 2010 AFL season, coinciding with the unveiling of the 2009 premiership flag. A$50,000 was also spent on a new 600-seat temporary stand between the Reg Hickey and Doug Wade stands.
In May 2009 it was revealed that the stadium owners the City of Greater Geelong had approached a number of Melbourne-based AFL clubs discussing the financial advantages of playing home games at the ground. Though such a move never eventuated, the ground was capable of earning other clubs A$30 a patron, compared to the A$7 a patron earned at Docklands Stadium in Melbourne. The Geelong Football Club had first floated using Kardinia Park as a potential home game venue for Melbourne clubs in 2006.
In April 2011, plans for the third stage of redevelopment were revealed. In this redevelopment, the Doug Wade stand at the southern end of the stadium was pulled down at the end of the 2011 AFL season. In place of the demolished Wade stand was a new 9,340 seat southern grandstand. The new grandstand included improved spectator amenities, a purpose-built training facility for community sports and education groups, a function room, and four broadcast-compliant floodlit towers, allowing the stadium to host night-time events. The redevelopment saw the stadium increase in capacity to 33,500. The redevelopment cost $33 million, of which $11.7 million was spent on the new lighting.