Punt Road Oval

Punt Road Oval, commercially known as the Swinburne Centre, is the traditional home ground of the Richmond Football Club. Located next to the MCG, the club’s training and administration is still based at the ground, with its current administration building opening in 2011, replacing the old social club building. The ground hosts home games for Richmond’s AFLW and VFL teams.

The oval was reconstructed and made larger in 2012/13, increasing it to the size of Marvel Stadium, while also removing the turf cricket wickets. The historic Jack Dyer grandstand was renovated in time for the 2014 season when the newly-formed Richmond VFL team entered the VFL and hosted home games at the venue. However, the stand is currently closed to the public, deemed to be unsafe, and is set to be replaced by a new building in the coming years. This has reduced capacity to just 2,000, but will be boosted to 8,000 following the redevelopment.

Traditionally known as the Richmond Cricket Ground, the first match was recorded at the site in December 1856. The Richmond Cricket Club continued to play at the venue until 2011 before moving to Central Reserve in Glen Waverley. Football was first played at the ground in 1885 when Richmond was in the VFA. They entered the VFL/AFL in 1908 and played at Punt Road until 1964 when they moved to the MCG, with 15,000 in attendance at the final game. The record crowd recorded at Punt Road Oval was 46,000 in 1949, but capacity was eventually reduced to about 22,000, with much of the outer hill removed due to the widening of Punt Road.