A-League football clubs these days comprise multiple teams and require multiple facilities. A club’s physical infrastructure influences everything from club culture to team performance and after 20 years of A-League football many of the clubs have been forward thinking in their infrastructure arrangements.
Where does your club rank in terms of its facilities, and where can it improve?
Let’s take a look at Melbourne Victory.
Current Set Up
The club is administered out of the Melbourne Rectangular Stadium (MRS). The ALM team plays at MRS and trains at the nearby Gosch’s Paddock. The ALW team plays and trains out of the Victorian State Football Centre. The NPL teams play games at Epping Stadium and the Darebin International Sports Complex. The teams appear to be training out of Robert Barret Reserve in the Inner West.
History of Set Up
Victory originally played home matches at the old Melbourne Olympic Park. Their initial success however immediately outgrew the venue, and the team moved their home games to Dockland Stadium under a very financially sound arrangement, noting no other summer sports were competing for space at the venue in those early years. Victory’s success and the prospect of a second A-League team helped push the State Government to build a rectangular stadium for the City (the MRS), and for a number of years Victory split its games between Docklands and MRS. Once the MRS was established Victory moved their ALM training and administration to its facilities, using the space at Gosch’s Paddock for sessions.
The ALW side was initially administered by Football Federation Victoria with games played across Melbourne. Stadiums used by the ALW team included Lakeside Stadium (2008–2020), Epping Stadium (2008–2022), David Barro Stadium (2011–2015), Wembley Park (2012), Kingston Heath Soccer Complex (2013–2014), John Ilhan Memorial Reserve (2014–2015), CB Smith Reserve (2021–2023) and MRS for double headers. It was only in 2023 when the team would enjoy a single consolidated match and training base after it was announced the team would occupy the new Victorian State Football Centre at La Trobe University – that’s correct the same university that one housed the original Melbourne Heart!
The Youth and NPL teams shared an equally nomadic existence. The team used a number of venues however after establishing links with Maribyrnong College and leveraging synergies of long-time partner Victorian University, the club secured access to two grounds at Robert Barret Reserve, located in the inner west. The arrangement saw a $750,000 investment from council to upgrade the grounds in 2017 and put into motion a grander plan from Victory to strengthen its roots in the region.
A year later the club secured $10m for the development of an academy at Footscray Park which was to comprise three pitches including a small show pitch. Anti-football lobbyists however sparked an ugly campaign against the facility and ultimately shot down the development of the vacant land, which has since been used for Australian Rules Football. In the following years Victory have failed to identify a new location for the facility, with reports that the club even considered a former toxic wasteland in the western suburbs. The club maintains sparse training facilities in the inner west for its youth teams and has been forced to play senior NPL matches in the far North at Epping Stadium, whilst also renting Football Victoria Facilities at Darebin for its Youth teams.
Finally of note, Victory also operate the Afghan Women’s Football Team out of Ron Barassi Oval in Docklands.
Assessment of Set Up, Gaps and Opportunities
Melbourne Victory should have a place to call home. They have had Youth and ALW teams play under the name since 2008, a time when their attendances were pushing 30,000. Since then they have seen Melbourne City and Western United pull ahead in terms of facilities. Sadly this appears to be partly a story of Victory’s contentedness. The club has been cushioned by a massive membership base and early success which appear to have seen it grow complacent. The club was rudely awakened to its laziness not just in its failures at Footscray Park (which followed City’s $15m investment at La Trobe), but also in poor results (10th in 2020, 12th in 2021, 11th in 2023) and a drop in crowds (average of less than 10,000 in 2023). So dire were things recently at the club, that it is threatened by a takeover by controversial football party 777 Partners.
Complacency aside, the Victory assessment of facilities is disappointing. The good news is that the MRS facilities for the ALM team are World Class as are the State Football Facilities that the ALW team have recently enjoyed. The bad news is the club’s youth only enjoy basic and underwhelming facilities and are forced to move across the city for home games. Victory has nowhere to bring together all its teams and as such will struggle to build a one club mentality. It has no ability to host its own games and must rent venues subject to external availabilities. The arrangements are not acceptable in the long term, especially considering the progress of rivals Melbourne City and Western United. The emergence of the NSD will further impact Victory as South Melbourne, Preston and even Avondale, all have access to multiple training pitches and operated their own club spaces.
The current arrangements ultimately work for Victory but it must find somewhere to house its teams, operate its own games and build a healthy club culture. Land acquisition in Melbourne is difficult, especially for Victory who have a preference to secure central facilities unlike their A-League rivals. A partnership with councils in Epping will provide land, but perhaps too far North. A partnership with La Trobe could prove viable, but may require the club to swallow its pride and walk into Heart’s old facilities. One interesting consideration though is that with the Melbourne Rebels slated to leave MRS, perhaps this is a chance for the club to bring its ALW program into the same training base as the ALM.
What the future holds is uncertain for Victory but for the good of the league the club must get its facilities right so that it can bring the sustained crowds and on-field success it brought in its early years.
Ratings based on future set up
Overall Ranking: 10th out of 12
Overall Rating: D+
Victory has access to facilities across Melbourne, but none that it can truly call its own.
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