Ltd, a company established in 1923 by Jack Campbell and Jim DuFrocq, developed and leased a large site known as the Amateur Sports Ground from the Crown with the help of local entrepreneur John Wren.

[1] During the time of the Great Depression the ground regularly drew in crowds of more than 30,000 to watch speedway, motorcycle and sidecar racing.

In 1936/37, the speedway also saw two Motorcycle speedway test matches between the Australians, including future (1938) Speedway World Champion Bluey Wilkinson, taking on the visiting Americans who included the 1937 World Champion Jack Milne and his younger brother Cordy, as well as Wilbur Lamoreaux who would finish second behind Milne in the 1937 World Final at the Empire Stadium in London (Cordy Milne would finish third).

Melbourne Carnivals had offered to lease the ground to the new Public Service Football Club if it were admitted to the League in 1925.

[12][13] The Richmond Football Club formally announced its intentions to move its home base from the Punt Road Oval to Olympic Park prior to the 1936 season, owing mostly to an ongoing dispute with the Richmond Cricket Club.

In the 1935 pre-season, the venue staged a night match under electric floodlights between 1934 VFL Grand Finalists Richmond and South Melbourne.

A full program of races was scheduled, but the event was cancelled after three farcical attempts at races – in which startled ostriches ridden by inanimate jockeys ran in opposite directions, and ostriches attached to sulkies failed to break out of a walk.