Albury Sports Ground 3.49

Albury Sports Ground is a sporting ground located close to the central business district of Albury, Australia. The oval is near the NSW bank of the Murray River, with a historic grandstand on the north-western flank, and a members' club with a grandstand and changing rooms on the eastern wing. The venue also incorporates a netball court in the north-eastern corner, while the Albury Swim Centre is adjacent to the west. The ground is part of a string of parks and gardens between the Murray River and Wodonga Place that include the Albury Botanic Gardens, Hovell Tree Park, Noreuil Park, Australia Park, and Oddies Creek Park.The venue is the home ground for the Albury Football Club in the Ovens & Murray Football League, and most seasons it hosts the Ovens & Murray preliminary final. In summers the venue is used for cricket, with a turf wicket, and in this capacity serves as the home of the Albury Tigers side in the Cricket Albury-Wodonga Provincial competition.History 1910: The Murray River broke its banks and flooded the park. It has a capacity of about 5,000, and historically had a capacity of at least 15,000.2016 Proposed RedevelopmentOn February 28, 2014 the Border Mail published an article titled "Lavington Oval 'in the wrong spot' for major events" in which Andrew Boyd Barber (a University of Melbourne post-graduate urban design student) said: "Albury Council should start planning for an upgraded sportsground precinct." He went on to cite the AFL’s decision to sell its ground at Waverley in favour of the Docklands stadium in central Melbourne. "Waverley is an incredible oval in the middle of suburbia that now has this radiating pattern of houses,"... "People couldn’t really access it that easily,". Mr Boyd Barber said Lavington Oval contained the same elements as Waverley, in that it had simply become nonviable to have a huge stadium in such a residential location. "You’ve got an oval on the outer fringe of an urban area that is slowly being encroached on by development,".