Essendon is planning a $50 million bid to redevelop and transform their spiritual home of Windy Hill, hoping it will become their home ground for AFLW and the VFL competitions.
The Bombers were based out of Windy Hill for nearly 100 years before making the move to Tullamarine in 2013.
The planned redevelopment hopes to turn Essendon into the home of women’s football in the region, while supporting VFL and grassroots teams as well.
The Dons received their AFLW license earlier in the year and will likely enter the competition in 2023.
Bombers CEO Xavier Campbell outlined the plan as it stands.
“The site as you know is a bit dilapidated and needs a lot of investment and for us we want to make it more inclusive and more inviting for all of our members and supports and the broader public around Essendon,” Campbell told SEN Breakfast.
“So you get something that is a bit more modernised that opens up, takes down some walls, take down the grandstand and hopefully we create the premier home for girls and women’s and grassroots football throughout the region there.
“We’ll always have our administration and training base at Tullamarine and that will include all of our women’s teams, our VFLW and AFLW teams, but in terms of playing games it makes a hell of a lot more sense playing in our spiritual home in Essendon.
“It’s more accessible, there’s more public transport and those sorts of things. It makes a lot of sense for us.
“There’s still a lot of water to go under the bridge, there’s various stakeholders at the site already, we’ve got to do a lot of fundraising around the precinct, $50 million doesn’t just fall out of trees.
“There’s still a lot of work to be done. We’ve got to find a good outcome for the Essendon Cricket Club and the Essendon Bowls Club, so these things are complex, but all stakeholders are working very closely together which is a very positive step.
“It won’t be to build a new grandstand, it would be taking down the Cookson Stand and retain the Reynolds and Hird stands there and we’ll still try and open up that outer side as well if we can and that will create an open atmosphere there.
“And you’d still like to have 5,000 to 7,000 there quite comfortably.
“It needs some resurfacing, the ground itself needs quite a bit of work, to extend the ground more around a Marvel Stadium type size is what we’ll get to.”
While their AFLW team will still be run out of Tullamarine, the plan is for them to play their games at the upgraded Windy Hill.
“The AFLW team will be housed at The Hanger, that will be the training and administration base as well, it’s just playing and purely just about where we’ll be playing,” Campbell added.
“Our AFLW and VFLW team our VFL team as well as the Essendon District Football League has massive participation out there.”
Campbell put a line through the possibility of the men’s side returning to Windy Hill.
“People would’ve wanted to stay at the spiritual home, but when you move from 40,000 square metres at Windy Hill to over 100,000 square metres at The Hanger and you’ve got two training grounds and you’ve got essentially unlimited space to expand your facility,” the Dons CEO said.
“We moved out there into a $30 million facility that housed all of our teams and now we’re just about to open a $25 million expansion of that out there.
“I don’t think we would (move back to Windy Hill) if I’m being brutally honest.
“It doesn’t mean that we don’t retain a strong presence at the spiritual home, but (Tullamarine) just accommodates everything we need as a professional sporting team.
“And the landscape of a professional sporting team is changing very quickly and we’ve got two more teams involved, we’ve got partnerships with the Paralympics and others that we really benefit from as well.”