Lakeside Stadium

History

Lakeside Stadium is an Australian sports arena in the South Melbourne suburb of Albert Park. Comprising an athletics track and soccer stadium, it currently serves as the home ground and administrative base for association football club South Melbourne FC, Athletics Victoria, Athletics Australia, Victorian Institute of Sport and Australian Little Athletics. The venue was built on the site of a former Australian rules football and cricket ground, the Lakeside Oval (also called the Lake Oval and the South Melbourne Cricket Ground), which served for more than a century as the home ground of the South Melbourne Cricket Club, and most notably as the home ground of the South Melbourne Football Club from 1880 to 1981, excluding a period from 1942 to 1946 when it was occupied by military during World War II, though Australian rules football had been played at the Albert Park end of the site from 1869 to 1879. The ground has also been used for soccer from at least 1883.