Before then, the Hotham Football Club had been playing home matches at Royal Park, near the present site of the Melbourne Zoo.

[citation needed] The first game of Australian football ever played at the ground took place on 29 April 1882, when Hotham defeated Royal Park.

[citation needed] The court ruled in favour of the cricket club citing that since it was Crown land, it was illegal to fence off any part of it for the benefit of either party.

[citation needed] Improvements to the ground that year, made in an attempt to increase revenue, included the installation of hot showers in the change rooms.

[citation needed] The invitation to join the VFL came at a time when local support for the club was at an all-time high prompting further upgrading of facilities.

[5] The move was intended to be permanent, with some initial negotiations seeking long-term leases for up to 40 years,[6] but it was ultimately cancelled after only eight months, and North Melbourne returned to the Arden Street Oval in 1966.

[7][8] Until the late 1960s, the 1906 and 1928 grandstands were the only major structures associated with the Recreation Reserve, until the construction of the new administration building and Social Club after 1966.

[citation needed] The club continued to maintain the Arden Street Oval as a training and administrative base after shifting home games away.

[10] In 2006 the ground became the subject of an arson attack, with several portable buildings including the gymnasium, coaches' offices and players' lounge being destroyed by fire in the early hours of 22 July, the morning after the Kangaroos suffered a 72-point loss to the Adelaide Crows at Football Park.

Remnants of this stand, the concrete players’ race and the base of one of the external staircases, remain in the terraced area[citation needed].

It housed the club gym for a few years before bird droppings inside the roof began to present a safety hazard.

The grandstand was eventually demolished in 2006 after failed attempts to find funds to repair the structure, much to the disappointment of the North-West Melbourne Association.

Led by Allen Aylett and Harold R. Henderson, a committee was formed that aimed to redevelop the ground so that there would never be a repeat of the club's relocation to Coburg.

After the demise of greyhound racing at Arden Street, the betting ring served as a car park and equipment shelter.

Much of the area was taken up by the Bob Dempster Memorial Nets, which were built on the oval in 1975, before being shifted to the corner of the betting ring closest to the intersection of Arden and Fogarty streets.

[13] The giant gas works structure was located along Macaulay Road and became synonymous with North Melbourne in the football world.

Apart from its aborted move to Coburg in 1965, and times when the ground was being upgraded, the Arden St Oval has served as the permanent home of the North Melbourne Football Club from 1882 until now.

Melbourne Greyhound Racing Association shifted its meetings to Olympic Park in 1962 after the Arden Street's ground committee sought to cash in on the popularity of the dogs by increasing the annual rent from £7,000 to £9,500.