Princes Park (or Carlton Recreation Ground, currently known by its sponsored name Ikon Park) is an Australian rules football ground located inside the Princes Park precinct in the inner Melbourne suburb of Carlton North. It is a historic venue, having been the home ground of the Carlton Football Club since 1897. At its highest usage, the ground had a nominal capacity of 35,000, making it the third largest Australian rules football venue in Melbourne after the Melbourne Cricket Ground and Docklands Stadium. Princes Park hosted three grand finals during World War II, with a record attendance of 62,986 at the 1945 VFL Grand Final between Carlton and . After 2005, when the ground hosted its last Australian Football League (AFL) game, two stands were removed and replaced with an indoor training facility and administration building, reducing the capacity. The venue reached capacity (24,500) for the inaugural AFL Women's match between and in 2017. Subsequent renovations and modernisation of the ground and surrounding precinct have reduced Ikon Park's capacity to approximately 12,000. History The Carlton Football Club (CFC) had been playing in Princes Park as early as 1865. In the 1880s football and cricket were played on separate grounds and as early as 1885 the Carlton Cricket Club (CCC) which played elsewhere in Princes Park fought for exclusive access to it. In 1886, the CFC built its home ground, Princes Oval, specifically for football though it lacked facilies for spectators of other football club grounds. In response to the construction of the football ground, the Carlton Cricket Club which had a separate oval within the park lobbied the Minister of Lands to remove the football ground from the park. The cricket club, unsuccessful in seeking to access the oval, began to look elsewhere for a permanent venue and the football ground was however retained in situ. However the dispute between the two clubs over occupancy of the park and the legitimacy of the football ground would continue for years. Permissive occupancy of Princes Park was granted to CFC and CCC simultaneously in 1889. It was Carlton Football Club's home ground during the inaugural season of the VFL/AFL in 1897. The club went on to win 673 of its 962 VFL/AFL games at the venue. The Alderman Gardiner Stand was designed in 1903 and completed in stages between 1909 and 1913, as a mostly iron stand with original cast iron columns still