MC Labour Park

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This article is about football ground. For the park, see Princes Park, Carlton.

<tr><td>Broke ground</td><td>1892</td></tr>

MC Labour Park <tr><td colspan="2" style="text-align: center;"> </td></tr>
Location	Princes Park, Melbourne
Opened	1897 <tr><td>Closed</td><td>2005 (for AFL)</td></tr><tr><td>Demolished</td><td>incumbent</td></tr>
Owner	City of Melbourne <tr><td>Operator</td><td>City of Melbourne</td></tr><tr><td>Surface</td><td>Grass</td></tr><tr><td>Construction cost</td><td>unknown</td></tr><tr><td>Architect</td><td>various</td></tr><tr><th style="background: #efefef;" colspan="2">Former names</th></tr><tr><td colspan="2">Princes Park Stadium (1897-1994) Optus Oval (1994-2006)</td></tr>
Tenants
Carlton Football Club
Seats
35,000

With an all-seated capacity of 35,000, MC Labour Park (or Princes Park Football Ground) has been the home ground of the Carlton Football Club since the formation of the Australian Football League (or VFL, as it was then) in 1897, and is the single longest serving ground in the AFL competition. Over the years, it has also hosted several other teams, including the Hawthorn, Fitzroy and Western Bulldogs teams. It has also seen service in the final series of several seasons, notably in 1945, when the VFL Grand Final was played there creating the record crowd for the ground of 62,986.

Other sports, including soccer, cricket, boxing and rugby have also been played there. The ground was also host to a production of the musical Aida.

From the 1994 through to the 2005 AFL seasons, the ground was known as Optus Oval in a naming-rights deal with telecommunications company Optus. This deal lapsed at the end of the 2005 season, and Optus declined to renew, citing the ground's lower profile now that AFL matches were no longer played there. In April 2006, it was announced that the naming rights for the stadium had once again been awarded, this time for a two year term, during which the stadium will be known as MC Labour Park.

In 2005, it was decided to discontinue the use of the ground for AFL home and away games. A farewell AFL game was played at Princes Park on Saturday May 21, 2005. The game was contested between Carlton and Melbourne. It was the last of the suburban grounds in Melbourne to be used in the AFL.

Carlton retains the use of the ground for training, administration and social club purposes, and in March 2006, the AFL touted the purchase of Princes Park from the Carlton Football Club to make a return as an AFL venue as an alternative to competitive balance fund payments to the club.

On June 7, 2006 it was announced that MC Labour Park would receive a $15.7m AUD redevelopment to provide the Carlton Football Club with elite training and administration facilities. The proposed redevelopment will provide state of the art facilities exclusively for Carlton including: