History
The Geelong Football Club began playing their first home games at Kardinia Park in 1941 after its previous home ground, Corio Oval, was commandeered by the military during World War II.
The stadium was, until 1982, the only VFL affiliated ground located outside the Melbourne metropolitan area.
Three or four night matches will be played at Kardinia Park in 2013 with the installation of floodlights. The poor lighting facilities at the ground were highlighted when Geelong's round 20, 2011 match against the Gold Coast was brought forward to 1:40pm, after its previous match (against Melbourne) almost finished in darkness.
Previous names of the stadium as results of sponsorship deals have been Skilled Stadium, Shell Stadium and Baytec Stadium; however it was only called Baytec Stadium for less than two months, and no AFL matches were played there under the name.
On 23 May 2002, Kardinia Park hosted a visit from the Dalai Lama who again visited the stadium in June 2007.
Kardinia Park is also regarded as a graveyard for opposition teams with Geelong, the main tenant, having not lost a match played at the venue between 26 August 2007 and 27 August 2011 non-inclusive. Geelong's Jimmy Bartel credited the home field advantage to the fact that Geelong are one of the few clubs who practice on the same field they play on. This was a huge factor in their winning the 2007, 2009 and 2011 AFL premierships, only losing three home games in that period (two in 2007 and one in 2011).
In its current layout Kardinia Park consists of the following seating areas: the Reg Hickey Stand, Doug Wade Stand, Premiership Stand, Brownlow Stand, A.R. Jennings Stand, Ron Hovey Room, Ford Stand and the Gary Ablett Terrace, with the latter containing the main standing room section.
Read more about this topic: Kardinia Park (stadium)
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