This new ground, Olympic Park Oval, has been used by the Collingwood Football Club for training purposes, it being adjacent to the Melbourne Sports and Entertainment Centre.

[3] Australian athletes competed on the track for over fifty years and the venue hosted twelve National Championships.

[4] Thirteen world records in athletics had been established at the stadium with Pole vaulter Emma George setting four between 1995 and 1998.

[15] As well as hosting several National Soccer League Grand Finals,[16][17] Game II of the 1990 State of Origin series was the first to be played in Melbourne and the stadium was packed to capacity for New South Wales' victory over Queensland.

The stadium also held an NSWRL premiership match in 1993, when the St. George Dragons defeated the Western Suburbs Magpies 20–8 in front of 11,822 fans.

The match was first rugby league test held in Australia outside of New South Wales or Queensland, with the Kiwi's scoring an upset 24–8 win over the World Champions in front of 26,900 fans.

The seating was only moved for one game, however, due to the cost involved and also the damage done to the playing surface, which mostly hosted the Australian Football League (who are also part owners of the stadium).

During rugby league matches the Western grandstand was named the Glenn Lazarus Stand after the Storm's foundation and first premiership winning captain, while the Eastern grandstand was named the Tawera Nikau Stand after New Zealand international lock forward who played 53 games for the Storm, including their 20–18 1999 NRL Grand Final win over St George-Illawarra in front of a world record rugby league crowd of 107,999 at the Sydney Olympic Stadium.

The Storm's first ever home game at the ground was in Round 4 of the 1998 season when 20,522 saw their new team defeat the North Sydney Bears 24–16.

Melbourne Storm moved out in 2010, as the stadium was always poorly suited for rugby league because the dimensions of the pitch were too small.

[21] The Collingwood Football Club used the Olympic Park Stadium as its outdoor training ground until the demolition in 2012.

After this occurred, Collingwood Football Club moved its outdoor training ground to the newly developed Olympic Park Oval that replaced the stadium after demolition.

Being an Australian rules football state, Victoria lacked a rectangular stadium of a size suitable for the growing numbers of attendees at the sports using Olympic Park.

There were plans for Olympic Park to be turned into a 40,000-seat rectangular stadium in the 1990s, with the main reason being the loss of international soccer, rugby league state of origin games, and rugby union games to the much larger Melbourne Cricket Ground (and later Docklands Stadium).