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Arden Street Oval (currently known as Aegis Park due to sponsorship reasons, and also known as the North Melbourne Cricket Ground) is a sports oval in North Melbourne, Victoria. It is currently the training base of the North Melbourne Football Club, an Australian rules football club, and up to the end of the 1985 season it was used as the team's home ground for Victorian Football League (VFL) matches. ==History== The North Melbourne Recreation Reserve is an inner-suburban sporting facility which is distinguished by its long standing association with the North Melbourne Football Club. Not much is known about the exact date that Arden St Oval was officially opened, but local history purports it as being as old as the suburb itself. The Hotham Cricket Club served as the ground's only tenants until 1882 when they amalgamated with the Hotham Football Club - as they were then known - to effect improvements to the ground. Before then, the Hotham Football Club had been playing home matches at Royal Park, near the present site of the Melbourne Zoo. The first game of Australian football ever played at the ground took place on 29 April 1882, when Hotham defeated Royal Park. Three years later, the ground became permanently reserved to the Crown. The football and cricket clubs changed their names to North Melbourne on 23 March 1888, after the Town of Hotham reverted to the name of North Melbourne in August 1887. The sharing agreement between the cricket and footy clubs was not all rosy, and by the late 1890s the two entities ended up in court over a dispute about the use of the cricket pavilion by a visiting football team. The court ruled in favour of the cricket club citing that since it was Crown land, it was illegal to fence off any part of it for the benefit of either party. The playing surface, previously notorious for becoming a gluepot in inclement weather, was upgraded during the winter of 1897, so no football was played there during that season. 1906 saw the construction of the ground's first grand stand. By mid-1909, the control of the Recreation Reserve had shifted to the Parks and Gardens Committee of the Melbourne City Council, meaning that the State Minister for Lands had final say over the use of the reserve. In 1921, the Essendon Football Club attempted to move to the ground after its home ground, the East Melbourne Cricket Ground, was closed, and the North Melbourne Football Club disbanded as it sought to amalgamate with Essendon; but the State Minister for Lands vetoed Essendon's move. This prompted Essendon to move to the Essendon Recreation Reserve, and the re-formed North Melbourne returned the following season to Arden Street. In 1922, management of the ground was transferred from the Melbourne City Council to the North Melbourne Football and Cricket Clubs. Improvements to the ground that year, made in an attempt to increase revenue, included the installation of hot showers in the change rooms. In early 1925, North Melbourne was finally admitted to the VFL. The invitation to join the VFL came at a time when local support for the club was at an all-time high prompting further upgrading of facilities. This included the construction of the main grandstand in 1928, with seating for 2,000 spectators. In 1965, North Melbourne moved its playing and training base from the Arden Street Oval to Coburg Oval. The move was intended to be permanent, with some initial negotiations seeking long-term leases for up to 40 years, but it was ultimately cancelled after only eight months, and North Melbourne returned to the Arden Street Oval in 1966. Until the late 1960s, the 1906 and 1928 grandstands were the only major structures associated with the Recreation Reserve, until the construction of the new administration building and Social Club after 1966.〔http://www.melbourne.vic.gov.au/opm/bc/CTEE/meetings/CaC_51_200602140700.pdf〕 The North Melbourne Football Club continued to use the site as its home ground until 1985, when the club began using the Melbourne Cricket Ground for its home matches. The last VFL match was played there on 17 August 1985 when North Melbourne defeated Richmond by 50 points. The record attendance at the ground is 35,116 in 1949. The highest score was North Melbourne's 29.19 (193) in 1983 versus Carlton. The club continued to maintain the Arden Street Oval as a training and administrative base after shifting home games away. From 2002 until 2010, the club based its administration to offices at Docklands Stadium (which was then serving as its home ground), before returning to upgraded Arden Street Oval offices in early 2010; but it has maintained Arden Street as its training base continuously throughout that time.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Arden St history )〕 In 2006 the ground became the subject of an arson attack, with several portable buildings including the gymnasium, coaches' offices and players' lounge being destroyed by fire in the early hours of 22 July, the morning after the Kangaroos suffered a 72-point loss to the Adelaide Crows at AAMI Stadium. Links between the attack, the team's loss and speculation surrounding its future were quickly dismissed. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Arden Street Oval」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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