Dear Saints fans,

I have a strong recollection of seeing my very first live Saints match against Carlton at Moorabbin in 1968, having just returned to Melbourne from Brisbane as a young child. 

As someone who grew up watching my beloved Saints compete at Moorabbin for nearly 30 years, I truly appreciate the deep connection between our club and the place we called home for a generation of Saints fans since 1965.

So you can imagine how thrilled I was on Monday evening to hear the Kingston City Council support our proposal to partner in an historic redevelopment which will re-establish our home at Moorabbin and integrate all levels of football in the region into a unique sporting hub.

That Premier Dan Andrews and Sports Minister John Eren have today indicated their willingness to also partner in this vision is tremendously encouraging.

RELATED: St Kilda commits to Moorabbin funding

Whilst this week’s developments do not make the Saints return to Moorabbin a fait accompli, it is now a fact that we have unprecedented alignment between government, community and AFL stakeholders which gives us great confidence in what can be achieved by working together.    

The Kingston City Council has shown great foresight in their plans to revitalise the entire Moorabbin Junction precinct and I firmly believe that with the support of Saints people we can significantly aid their ambitions to promote a thriving and active local community in the area.

When we released our Road to 2018 Vision Statement at the start of the 2014 season we clearly stated that fixing Moorabbin and a return there at some level was one of our key strategic pillars.

Whilst we have always had this as an objective, the current plans far exceed anything I realistically envisaged at the time we made that commitment to you, or indeed any other options we have explored since. 

This week’s progress is the result of months of discussions and builds on existing plans to upgrade Moorabbin as a community sporting hub that acts as a home for our future stand-alone VFL team, and highly respected community football bodies the Sandringham Dragons, Southern Football Netball League and South Metro Junior Football League.

Less than a fortnight ago we marked the 50^th anniversary of the day more than 51,000 people turned out to watch the club’s first game at Linton Street, Moorabbin (April 17, 1965 v Collingwood).

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This ground has played an enormous role in the history of St Kilda and holds a special place in the hearts of our fans - it deserves to be brought back to life and now is the right time to do that.

The move to Seaford has created significant comment over recent years. It was a decision taken by the club based on circumstances that existed at that time and led to us having access to the high performance facilities necessary to compete in a competition as demanding as the AFL.  However, from talking to thousands of Saints fans I know that the grief of leaving Moorabbin several years ago has never been fully resolved.

In my view, the prospect of a return to our Moorabbin heartland would provide a major boost to our great club and allow us to provide training, administration, social and community facilities to secure our future.

There’s still much to be done before our vision becomes a reality, however we are much closer this week than ever before.  

Our club will need to make its own significant financial contribution along with our project partners, which will - all going to plan - require a coordinated fundraising program over the next two years.

The Saints Foundation, established in 2014 for this very purpose, will play a critical role in this enterprise as we seek to unite all Saints people in support of our future.

Finally, I want to reassure Saints fans that the investment we have made in building a closer relationship with the Frankston community in recent years will remain a focus for our club. The support we have received from the Frankston community has been fantastic and deeply appreciated by the club.   

A number of our greatest players joined the club from the southern bayside region and we fully intend to grow our support and connections in the area regardless of where the club calls home.

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The Linen House Centre in Seaford is a terrific facility and our discussions with Frankston City Council regarding its ongoing usage for sporting and community benefits have been very encouraging. We believe this could become a valuable asset for the Frankston community.

Our management team, led by Matt Finnis, has worked tirelessly to get us to a point where this exciting opportunity is now close and I thank and congratulate them on behalf of the members of the St Kilda Football Club.  

It is now vital we support them so I encourage all Saints people to get behind the direction our club is headed and be part of this exciting journey.  We certainly won’t realise our goals without you. 

Peter Summers

President

St Kilda trained at Moorabbin two weeks ago.