FOOTBALL has smashed through four decades of acrimony with cricket officials to return to Adelaide Oval.

And as the debate remains as to which AFL club - the Crows or Power - will host the first game in March 2014, the first kick at the Oval has been claimed.

An excavator operator booted a synthetic football he discovered in the rubble of the Bradman Stand yesterday. Today, The Advertiser can reveal final designs for the $535 million Oval.

A year after the famous vote of SA Cricket Association members to approve the $535 million redevelopment - and allow football to return to the city ground as a partner - every room has been planned down to the fine detail of its fittings.

And the exterior of the new 50,000-seat stadium will have a copper and sandstone finish.

"The finishes will deliver a beautiful stadium in the parklands that will be timeless," said project director David Johnson. Work on the redevelopment - that has recently cleared away the Bradman and Chappell stands - is ahead of schedule.

The project also remains within its government-controlled budget.

"Every essential part of the project is covered," said SANFL chief executive Leigh Whicker. "Our wish list - that never stops developing - to enhance the project has us in talks with corporate backers."

The fear the $535 million budget was so tight that it would clear away the "bells and whistles" for spectators at the new Oval has been dismissed.

This is highlighted by the project delivering three - rather than two - huge video replay screens inside the stadium and two on the outside of the southern stand looking over the terrace plaza.

There will a screen on each end of the new southern stand rather than just one in the south-west corner.

Critically, the final design has delivered stands that place fans closer to the field than those at the MCG. And no seat will be more than 40m from a toilet or food outlet.

The final details of the new Adelaide Oval include:

STANDING room for 3860 fans on the northern mound that will have a timber deck and grassed hill. Architects have made this area cover 1600sq m - well beyond legislation that demands at least 1200sq m.

FIFTY entry gates. The stadium can be cleared of spectators in 22 minutes.

CORPORATE suites for 480 with 10 boxes in the southern stand and 36 in the eastern stand.

"Market research says people want to sit outside these boxes rather than behind glass - and the design delivers on this," Mr Johnson said.

Football leaders from the SANFL and Adelaide and Port Adelaide football clubs started meetings this week to decide on prices for these boxes.

Mr Whicker expects these rates to be set by August 31.

"People want to know now what a corporate suite will cost - and we will have all the pricings ready this year," Mr Whicker promised.

Other features include a "city view" dining room that can cater for 1000 people in the southern stand offering views of the River Torrens and city skyline and easier movement of spectators along a 10m-wide concourse at the back of the seats

In the next month the work program at Adelaide Oval will force the removal of the two light towers on the eastern side of the ground - and the removal of 200,000 cubic metres of soil under the now collapsed Bradman Stand.

The timeline to the stadium's opening in March 2014 with a Showdown between the Power and Crows is:

THE northern mound complete and light towers restored for this summer's Test match against South Africa. There should be 30,000 seats and capacity for at least 36,000 cricket fans.

THE oval turf dug up, flattened to laser technology and fitted with new drainage in February.

THE new 14,000-seat southern stand open for the Ashes Test in December next year.

ICONIC names - such as the Victor Richardson Gates - are all up for grabs again as football and cricket seek to honour all their greats at the new stadium.

"We're working off a clean slate," Mr Whicker said.

"That's for the grandstands, the gates, the bars."

There will 20 assets at the stadium named after either cricket or football heroes. Football greats will be nominated by the SA Football Hall of Fame committee.

SANFL and SA Cricket Association officials on the new Stadium Management Authority will decide which features of the new Adelaide Oval will be named after football and cricket legends.