Hawthorn prepares to sell Waverley Park headquarters ahead of Dingley move

A big-name buyer is the frontrunner to secure Hawthorn’s Waverley Park headquarters after it emerged the historic site was on the market.

Melbourne’s historic Waverley Park may not be lost to football, with the AFL firmly in the race to purchase the venue from Hawthorn.

Waverley Park – which hosted 732 VFL/AFL games including the 1991 Grand Final – has been up for sale as the Hawks prepare to move to a new home base in Dingley later this year.

While the venue once had a capacity of 72,000 people, much of the stadium has since been demolished and is now surrounded by a housing estate.

Jack Gunston in the middle of Waverley Park.

However, in addition to the ground there remains a grandstand, gym and administration offices.

Hawthorn purchased the ground for just $1 in 2006, with the club set to cash in big-time on any sale.

The AFL said only on Friday night that it was always looking for more facilities to accommodate the growth of the game.

Peter Everitt and Sam Mitchell in front of the historic grandstand.

“The AFL has targeted having 10 million attendees at AFL/AFLW games, events or festivals, two million AFL club members and one million participants and in order to achieve the target for participation we need two ovals a week every week for the next five years,” AFL spokesman Jay Allen said.

“We are always looking for ovals, either already in the system that we can continue to use for football, or new greenfield developments so we can continue to expand the space we need to accommodate the strong national growth in people playing our game.”