Box Hill City Oval

Box Hill City Oval
Box Hill City Oval in 2014
Location Box Hill, Victoria
Coordinates 37°49′8″S 145°8′15″E / 37.81889°S 145.13750°E / -37.81889; 145.13750Coordinates: 37°49′8″S 145°8′15″E / 37.81889°S 145.13750°E / -37.81889; 145.13750
Owner City of Whitehorse
Capacity 10,000 (500 seated)[1]
Field size 165m × 150m
Surface Grass
Opened 1937
Tenants
Box Hill Football Club
Box Hill Sub-District Cricket Club

Box Hill City Oval is an Australian rules football and cricket stadium located in Box Hill, Victoria, Australia. It is the home ground of the Box Hill Hawks Football Club which plays in the Victorian Football League, and the Box Hill Cricket Club which plays in the Victorian Sub-District Cricket Association.

Box Hill City Oval was officially opened in 1937. The capacity of the venue is approximately 10,000 people. The largest official attendance at the ground was on 14 August 1983 when 6,200 people attended a VFA game between Box Hill and Oakleigh. In more recent times a crowd of 5,253 attended a VFL game between the Box Hill Hawks and Williamstown on 19 June 2005. On Melbourne Show Day 1953, the venue hosted a benefit game for the family of Ray Gibb, who had died in an accident in early September, between a combined Hawthorn-Richmond team and a Box Hill team augmented with VFL and VFA stars;[2] the crowd at the time was estimated to be 6,000.[3] The venue has two pavilions and terracing on the western wing, but no grandstand.

It is currently the second-choice venue, behind North Port Oval, for VFL finals; it usually hosts finals only in the first week, but also hosted the preliminary finals in 2010 when the North Port Oval surface was unplayable due to rain and overuse.[4]

Major milestones

1937 Ground opened
Main pavilion constructed
1951 Box Hill Football Club admitted to VFA
Major improvements including committee rooms, kiosk and scoreboard added
1970 Coterie room constructed
1976 Social rooms built in main pavilion
1983 Present scoreboard constructed
1989 Playing surface relaid
Present kiosk constructed
1994 Committee rooms and coterie room joined to form President's Room
1998 Whitehorse Council acquired 4 remaining houses adjacent to ground
Areas converted into public carparking
2001 "Federation Gates" constructed
2002 Box Hill Hawks players rooms and administration office constructed
2007 "Barbara and Ron Gibbs Entrance" opened
Cricket practice wickets removed from playing arena
2009 "South Pavilion" opened
2012 New coaches boxes constructed
Major refurbishment of North Pavilion completed

Sources

  1. http://www.austadiums.com/stadiums/stadiums.php?id=152
  2. "Stars aid appeal". The Argus (Melbourne, VIC). 24 September 1953. p. 12.
  3. "Big crowd at charity game". The Age (Melbourne, VIC). 25 September 1953. p. 8.
  4. Brent Diamond (7 September 2010). "Valenti and Clifton share Liston". The Age (Melbourne, VIC). Retrieved 24 March 2014.
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