First images of Port Adelaide’s big redevelopment of the Port Club have been revealed

Port Adelaide are flying on the field and the Power are about to start on a big redevelopment of the Port Club at Alberton.

The status of Alberton as the spiritual home of the Port Adelaide Football Club will be strengthened by what the Power hope is an iconic redevelopment of the Port Club.

Years in the making, but slightly delayed by COVID-19, the first stage of the redevelopment of the Port Club, also known as the “Footballers’ Club” will begin in January.

Port Adelaide chief executive Matthew Richardson said this had allowed the club to make the redevelopment plans more special.

“When our people come to Port Adelaide, they don’t come into the administration or training building, they come to the ‘Footballers’ Club’. Its where the Port Adelaide Football Club truly connects as a community,” he said.

The first part of Port’s grand plans for the Club, established by legendary administrator Bob McLean, involves the establishment of a long awaited Port Adelaide club museum.

A concept image of the Port Adelaide club museum.

Featuring replicas of The Magpies’ 36 SANFL premierships and the Power’s 2004 AFL flag on display the museum - which will involve interactive exhibitions and storytelling of the club’s legends across its 150-years - will also involve 160-year-old wharf pylons from Port Adelaide used in a homage to the club’s famous guernsey.

The other main part of this first stage will involve the relocation and expansion of the club’s Port Store.

Based on what Liverpool and American soccer side LA Galaxy do with their club shops, the new footprint of the Port Store will be two to three times bigger and it will also be given an industrial-style look in a nod to Port Adelaide’s working class roots.

What the Port Store is set to look like.

But for footy fans arguably the best is to come in the second-stage of the redevelopment, when the sports bar is shifted upstairs to overlook Alberton Oval.

Some seats at the top of the Robert B. Quinn MM Grandstand will be scrapped so a deck can also be created upstairs, with the club dreaming of AFLW games played at Alberton Oval on summer evenings with a plan for the Power to get a women’s team in the next two to three years.

As part of this, a ‘grand staircase’ will be created to open up the second level to Port fans and the public, which will start during stage one of the redevelopment as funding is sought for stage 2.

A proposed image of the entrance to the Port Club as part of the redevelopment.

Richardson said the upstairs sports bar would become a fantastic place to enjoy a drink, a meal, watch the footy, watch training or just enjoy the view of Alberton Oval.

“The upgraded ‘footballers’ club’ will enhance our overall vision for Alberton Oval and how we see it evolving over the next few years to be hosting AFLW games during the summer months and also becoming a unique combination of broadened community sport and high performance,” he said.

The poker machines at the Port Club will remain on the ground level.

What the Port Adelaide museum will look like.