Elsternwick Park
| Sportscover Arena | |
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| Former names | Elsternwick Cricket Ground |
|---|---|
| Location | St Kilda St, Brighton, Victoria |
| Coordinates | 37°53′5″S 144°59′38″E / 37.88472°S 144.99389°ECoordinates: 37°53′5″S 144°59′38″E / 37.88472°S 144.99389°E |
| Owner | City of Bayside |
| Field size | 165m × 145m |
| Surface | Grass |
| Opened | 1903 |
| Tenants | |
| Elsternwick Cricket Club (VSDCA) Victorian Amateur Football Association (1967–pres) Brighton Football Club (VFA, 1927–1960) Elsternwick Football Club (VAFA, 1908–1953) |
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Elsternwick Park (currently known by its sponsored name Sportscover Arena) is an Australian rules football and cricket stadium in Brighton, a suburb of Melbourne in Victoria, Australia. The name also refers to the wider parkland in which the main oval is located. The ground is the administrative and primary central playing base of the Victorian Amateur Football Association.
The cricket ground was built on part of the site of the former Elsternwick Racecourse by the Elsternwick Cricket Club, a club which had been established in 1901 through an amalgamation of three local cricket teams. The original cost of the development was more than £500, and the ground was formally opened on 9 November 1903 by former Premier Sir George Turner. The Elsternwick Football Club, which was playing in the Metropolitan Junior Football Association (later known as the Victorian Amateur Football Association), began playing football on the ground during winter from 1908.
In 1927, the Brighton Football Club, which was playing in the Victorian Football Association, began playing its senior home matches at the venue. The Brighton Council, which owned the ground, erected fences around the venue, and improvements were paid for jointly by the Elsternwick Cricket Club and the Brighton Football Club. Brighton had an arrangement under which it shared winter tenancy of the ground with incumbent Elsternwick Football Club, such that the clubs used the ground on alternate Saturdays, while the Brighton seconds team continued to use Brighton Beach Oval as its home ground; this arrangement was unique in the VFA, as all other clubs were required to provide the same ground for their firsts and seconds teams to use on alternate weeks.
The ground was of good quality and was sought after by other clubs. On two occasions the St Kilda Football Club, which played in the Victorian Football League and often endured a disharmonious relationship with its landlord, the St Kilda Cricket Club, considered a move to the ground: once in 1933, when its committee recommended it but the club did not proceed; and again in 1959, when a request to the council for a 50-year lease was rejected.Prahran played its VFA home games at the venue in 1948 when its home ground at Toorak Park was unavailable. In 1954, the Elsternwick Amateur Football Club was evicted from the main ground, and the Brighton Soccer Club leased the ground in its place, sharing it on alternate weekends with the Brighton Football Club; it was the first time a VFA team had shared a ground with a soccer team, which caused great concern within the VFA at the time.
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