Tenants
Although the ground was the permanent home to the Carlton Football Club from mid-1897 until 2005, Princes Park has hosted several other Australian rules football teams. Most notably, Hawthorn played its home games there for eighteen years between 1974 and 1991 after leaving Glenferrie Oval; Fitzroy spent two short stints at the ground between 1967–1969 and 1987-1993 after leaving Brunswick St Oval; the Western Bulldogs spent three years there from 1997-1999 after leaving Whitten Oval, and; South Melbourne temporarily shared the ground from 1942-1943 when Lake Oval was used during the second world war. It has also seen service in the final series of several seasons, most notably in 1945, when the VFL Grand Final was played there, creating the record crowd for the ground of 62,986. The ground was also used briefly as a venue for games expecting low crowds in the early 2000s, but this was unpopular and short-lived. More recently, the ground has hosted Victorian Football League Grand Finals up to 2007, and was until 2010 the home ground of the newly created VFL side of the Collingwood Football Club, which is ironic considering that Collingwood and Carlton are bitter rivals in the AFL.
Other sports, including soccer, cricket, boxing and rugby, have also been played there. The ground was also host to a production of the opera Aida.
The Carlton Football Club 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.
For the 2006 NRL season onwards, Visy Park is also the administrative headquarters for the Melbourne Storm rugby league club. The club relocated to the temporary home while plans were being made for the construction of a new purpose-built rectangular stadium next to the then-current Melbourne Storm home ground, Olympic Park Stadium.
The appointment of Richard Pratt as President had renewed speculation that it may again be used by the Carlton Football Club as a home ground in the future. This is unlikely to happen as Pratt stood down as President in June 2008 and died in April 2009, and two of the six stands have been demolished to make way for a $15.7m elite training venue. In 2009 Carlton CEO Greg Swann publicly declared Carlton's intention to play home games at Visy Park again in the wake of poor financial returns at Etihad Stadium
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