While there was a huge crowd at Eureka Stadium for Sunday's Bulldogs-Gold Coast AFL clash, more surprising was the huge crowd in the former John Valves site nearby.
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A broken fence on the Norman Street side and an enterprising driver looking for a place to park was all it took for the 7.5-hectare site to quickly fill with dozens of cars on Sunday afternoon.
On Sunday, council and organisers had designated bus and car drop-off zones close to the main Creswick Road gates, and local roads on the other side of the stadium were open to local traffic only.
The CE Brown Reserve had hundreds of vehicles neatly parked as well, and there were cars along Norman Street from Selkirk Stadium - which was also hosting a basketball event at the same time - to the Ballarat North police station.
It should be noted that parking for AFL matches and other big events at the stadium is always chaotic - it's not unusual to see lines of cars all the way along both sides of Creswick Road up to the Western Freeway, and for side streets to pack out.
There were signs pointing to "event parking" along Creswick Road, with arrows unfortunately pointing straight to the former John Valves site, which may have led to some confusion.
Previously a factory, the John Valves site has been empty since the early 2010s, and is now under private ownership.
It was mooted as a good place to expand facilities for the planned 2026 Commonwealth Games, but the state government instead chose to redevelop the Ballarat showgrounds.
Given the amount of footy fans pulling their way through barbed wire fences, it's clear the John Valves site was not supposed to be used as an official parking area on the day.
Council's development and growth director Natalie Robertson said the City of Ballarat "does not encourage parking on private land".
"On Sunday, traffic management plans were in place around the precinct for car parking, with parking attendants directing overflow to CE Brown Reserve," she said in a statement.
"The AFL game drew in 9,752 spectators, as well as the neighbouring NBL1 South Blitz tournament at Selkirk Stadium, which attracted almost 1,000 basketball players and officials alone.
"City of Ballarat's officers will follow up with the owners of the site to ensure they are aware of what occurred on the weekend and encourage them to secure the fencing."
For the punters, it was just another AFL match in Ballarat, but while some praised the pick-up and drop-off zones - particularly for disability parking - others said the parking situation had gotten worse over the years.
Mick from Bacchus Marsh said there used to be a shuttle bus from a nearby paddock.
"At the MCG it's hard to get a park, or at Marvel, without paying $30 or something like that, so it's sort of no different to anywhere else - but it'd be good to get parking closer," he said.
Rebecca and Nick from Magpie said it was a "frustrating" situation, particularly parking a kilometre from the station and walking in with young children.
"There's no designated parking, you have to park on the side of the road," she said.
"It's frustrating when you've got this bit of land on the corner, which is nothing land, and they could easily turn that into a car park," Nick added.
Early planning work is under way to build another 5000 seats at the stadium, funded by the state government as part of its promise to Ballarat for Commonwealth Games upgrades.
The Games have since been cancelled.
