The Richmond Football Club is set to undertake a redevelopment of Punt Road Oval after the State Government announced a $15.5 million funding contribution.
The idea behind the refurbishment is to improve the football facilities for both the men’s and women’s teams, to increase capacity to close to 8,000, to provide a home for the club’s community programs and to improve the quality of the club’s administration.
Tigers CEO Brendon Gale explained that the $60 million revamp will increase the playing and training surface to the dimensions of the MCG but as a trade-off of sorts will unfortunately impact the iconic Jack Dyer Stand, which will be no longer.
Being able to house the AFLW team is also a key factor for the upgrade.
“There are some sensitivities but progress is important and we need to work hard to meet the needs of the club,” Gale said on SEN Breakfast.
“Right now, the most important tool of trade you have as a footy club is your oval. We’ve got an oval which probably isn’t fit for purpose.
“As our footballers become bigger, more athletic and more powerful, it almost becomes smaller every year. It affects the quality of the VFL game and the ability of the players to display their wares and develop.
“More importantly, we aren’t allowed to play AFL women’s football there which we want it to use to showcase.
“To get the oval to MCG size, to future-proof Punt Road, to keep us at Richmond forever hopefully, we need to extend into the footprint of the Jack Dyer Stand.
“We need to continue to grow and evolve, we need to meet the long term needs of the club and ensure Richmond stays at Richmond and doesn’t have to look at other alternatives.”
While Gale acknowledges the club’s rich heritage in referring to the Jack Dyer Stand, he believes that moving forward and progressing towards the future is just as important for the club that has won three of the past four AFL premierships.
“While there are some sensitive heritage aspects involved with the stand, we think there is much, much more heritage value in the Richmond Football Club staying at Punt Road Oval in Richmond for the long term,” he added.
“The history and tradition of the club is very important to us.
“It’s (the stand) currently condemned. We’ve looked at repairing it. We’ve looked at relocating it, brick by brick, but it’s just too prohibitive. So, we’ll work hard to ensure that some of the historical aspects of the stand will remain.
“It’s similar to the MCC. They’ve done a wonderful job in providing all the modern amenity and comfort but maintained some of those lovely heritage, historical aspects.”
The $15.5 million State Government funding is added to the $15 million granted by the Federal Government in 2019 with the club to fund the balance of the $60 million redevelopment.