A FOOTBALL era came to an end yesterday when the North Melbourne grandstand at Arden Street came under the hammer.

For nearly a century, North Melbourne club members have barracked their approval or disapproval from the stand's wooden seats as they followed their team's fortunes on their home ground.

The grandstand was built in 1928 — only three years after the club's transition from the Victorian Football Association to the ranks of the Victorian Football League. By 1937, the club had secured a staunch membership of 2400 — then a VFL record.

Its grandstand, with the players' race leading to the ground from directly under it, provided reserved member seating of up to 6000. The front row was famously reserved for the selection committee and the club's directors.

Former North Melbourne coach Ron Barassi still regales listeners with his description of the time someone abused him in full view of the grandstand at quarter time when North played Essendon in 1973. The entire front row of selectors and directors stood up and rushed down to help him, a club spokesman said yesterday.

The grandstand was last used in 1986; it is making way for a $7 million redevelopment that will provide modern training and administrative facilities for the Kangaroos, who, in recent years, claimed they were hampered by having the worst training facilities in the AFL.

This follows a formal agreement between the AFL, the State Government and Melbourne City Council last December to contribute to the redevelopment project. The club leases the ground and the stand from its owner, Melbourne City Council, and a council spokeswoman said no work had been done on the stand since it was first built.

The demolition will take up to three weeks, and the redevelopment is expected to be completed by the middle of next year, according to the project manager, Lisa Gordon.

But, she said, the spirit of the old grandstand will live on, with 2000 bricks from its facade, 10 rows of its wooden seats and historical items to be incorporated into the new building.

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