A much revamped South Melbourne, with a new coach, new general manager, and a predominantly new team, will take on reigning New South Wales Premier League champions Sydney Olympic in their newly upgraded home.

Over $50 million has been spent by the Victorian State Government to convert Lakeside from football ground to multi-purpose venue with the addition of IAAF standard athletics track, new administrative and training facilities, enhanced corporate entertainment suites, an electronic scoreboard, and a second grandstand which will take the seating capacity to 8,000 (with additional standing space for 7,000).

The upgrade will allow South to move forward on a commercial basis with general manager and former football agent Peter Kokotis claiming that this will put the club on a more solid financial footing.

“With the improved facilities we are now able to present the professional image that in the past the traditional clubs may have struggled to project,” he said.

South will welcome Sydney Olympic for the first time since the end of the NSL in 2004. Much has changed in Australian football since then and the game has moved on.

Both clubs are keen to move forward and play as big a part in the future of the game as they have in its history – so why revive old memories?

“We wanted to give the supporters something different, something they haven’t seen for a long time,” says club president Leo Athanasakis. "We wanted to do something exciting that would rekindle the old rivalries

“We couldn’t invite an A-League team as they are all playing at the weekend, so we had to look interstate. Olympic have just won the New South Wales Premier League, so they are the best team outside Victoria – we always want to play against the best. That’s what being a football club is about.”

With the Smith Report recently re-opening the issue of appropriately sized stadiums, and apparently closing the door on A-League expansion, the fixture is a timely reminder that venues and clubs do exist outside the A-League who could potentially help build the competition.

Kokotis added: “We believe that we are an A-League club in a state league competition.

"The door to the national league is shut at the moment, but it’s our job to keep on knocking and to convince them to open up. When the door opens we have to be ready because if we’re not ready we have no one to blame but ourselves.”

The gates at Lakeside will open at 11am on Sunday with supporters able to view the stadium whilst youth teams representing all levels of the club play exhibition games.

The club has also arranged for a bouncing castle and face painting to entertain the kids. The big match between South Melbourne and Sydney Olympic kicks off at 5.30pm. Entry is free.