Preston City Oval (PCO), also known by naming rights sponsorship as Genis Steel Oval (GSO) and sometimes mistakenly as Genis Street Oval, is an Australian rules football stadium in Cramer Street in Preston, a suburb of Melbourne. It has a main grandstand and the ground is capable of holding around 5,000 spectators.[2][3]
In the 1960s, the then-VFL's Fitzroy Football Club was interested in moving its base from the Brunswick Street Oval to Preston, owing to a poor relationship with the Fitzroy Cricket Club, and in 1962 it made a request to the Preston Council for a 40-year lease of the venue; but, the council decided that the lease could be granted only if the Fitzroy and Preston football clubs came to agreeable terms, which they did not.[4]
In summer the ground is used by the Preston Cricket Club, who play in the VSDCA as their home ground. The PCC uses the ground for their 1st and 2nd XI as well as the Under 15 RM Hatch Team.
Redevelopment
In the summer of 2009/10 the ground was redeveloped. Drought tolerant couch grass has been in the summer so that the ground was ready for football season.
^El-Houli, Zakariya (5 July 2024). "VFL Tigers set for Bullants battle". Richmond Football Club. Archived from the original on 5 July 2024. Retrieved 21 July 2024. Richmond VFL's line-up is confirmed to take on the Northern Bullants at Genis Street Oval on Sunday afternoon.
^"Grounds row widens". The Sun News-Pictorial. Melbourne, VIC. 20 March 1962. p. 40.