Decline
Being an Australian rules football state, Victoria lacked a rectangular stadium of a size suitable for the growing numbers of attendees at the sports using Olympic Park. There were plans for Olympic Park to be turned into a 40,000 seat rectangular stadium in the 1990s, with the main reason being the loss of international soccer, rugby league state of origin games, and rugby union games to the much larger Melbourne Cricket Ground (and later Docklands Stadium). However, these venues had less ideal viewing conditions for rectangular sports. The redevelopment of Olympic Park never occurred, with the Bracks Government revealing in 2005 the that a new 20000 seat rectangular stadium would be built and would be home to Melbourne Victory and Melbourne Storm.
Melbourne Victory moved out of Olympic Park during the 2006-07 A-League season, due to capacity issues and moved into Docklands Stadium. It was a huge success, with crowd numbers of over 20,000 and giving the stadium a major summer tenant which the stadium previously lacked. Due to the crowd average exceeding the proposed capacity of the rectangular stadium, they declared they would not play at the rectangular stadium unless the capacity was increased. In May 2007, the proposed capacity was increased to 31,000.
Melbourne Storm played at Olympic Park until the 2009 NRL season and used Docklands Stadium as a temporary home ground until May 2010 when the new stadium opened.
On 4 March 2008, it was reported that Australian Rules Football club president Eddie McGuire was attempting to take over Olympic Park and use the facilities as a training ground for his Collingwood team.
On 25 November 2009, it was announced that Olympic Park would be demolished, with a new home for Athletics Victoria being built at Lakeside Stadium. Collingwood would have exclusive access to an MCG sized training oval at the Olympic Park site.
Demolition of the venue began in late 2011.
Read more about this topic: Olympic Park Stadium
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