Casey Fields
Casey Fields is a $30 million, 70 hectare multi-sports complex in the City of Casey at Cranbourne East a southeastern suburb of Melbourne.
The complex is home to Australian rules football, cricket, netball, tennis, cycling and golf. Rugby football and soccer fields are also planned as part of future development.
Australian rules football
The first stage cost $4.2 million and opened on 29 April 2006. The facility consists of five ovals, the main one being home to the Casey Scorpions Victorian Football League side and also the Cranbourne Football Club in the Mornington Peninsula Nepean Football League's Casey-Cardinia Division. The current capacity of that oval is around 15,000, with plans to add more stands.
NAB Cup pre-season regional challenge matches have been played there, with the record crowd being 10,099 set in 2007 when Hawthorn played Essendon.
It has been touted as a potential training base for several Australian Football League clubs, notably the Melbourne Football Club. The AFL is proposing it as the future site for a boutique stadium in Melbourne of similar size to Optus Oval or Skilled Stadium, with plans to build more stands so that it can become a third option for AFL regular season matches, behind the Melbourne Cricket Ground and Etihad Stadium.
The ground also hosted many of the games played during the 2008 and 2009 AFL National Under 18 Championships. In February 2009 Melbourne played the Western Bulldogs in front of a crowd of 3,000 on a very wet day, with the Western Bulldogs winning by 38 points.
Lack of public transport access
Since the 1990s it has been proposed that Cranbourne East railway station would be built adjacent to the complex, on a short extension from the current Cranbourne terminus of the former South Gippsland railway line. This has not yet eventuated. The only current alternative is the "Train Link" bus from Cranbourne station to New Holland Drive, and then a 15 minute walk to the complex.