Capacity: 100,000
Opened: 1854
Owner: Victorian Government

The Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) is an Australian sports stadium located in Yarra Park in inner Melbourne, home to the Melbourne Cricket Club. It is the largest stadium in Australia, and holds the world record for the highest light towers at any sporting venue. The MCG is within walking distance of the city centre, and is serviced by Richmond and Jolimont train stations.

Internationally, the MCG is remembered as the centrepiece stadium of the 1956 Summer Olympics and the 2006 Commonwealth Games. The open-air stadium is also one of the world’s most famous cricket venues, with the well-attended Boxing Day test match commencing on Boxing Day every year. Throughout the winter, it serves as the home of Australian rules football, with at least one game (though usually more) held there each round. In late September, the AFL Grand Final fills the stadium to capacity.

Until the 1970s, more than 120,000 people were sometimes crammed into the venue - the record crowd standing at around 130,000 for a Billy Graham religious event in 1959, followed by 121,696 for the 1970 VFL Grand Final. Renovations and safety regulations now limit the maximum capacity to just under 100,000.

The MCG, often referred to by locals as “The G”, has also hosted other major events, including International Rules between the Australian Football League and Gaelic Athletic Association, international Rugby union, State of Origin rugby league, FIFA World Cup qualifiers and International Friendly matches, and large rock concerts. When Madonna performed at the ground during her Girlie Show Tour in 1993, she dubbed it “The G Spot”.

Punt Road Oval, home of Richmond Football Club is located only a few hundred metres to the east of the stadium.

The MCG is listed on the Victorian Heritage Register. During the lunch break at the 2005 Boxing Day Cricket Test, it was announced by then Australian Federal Treasurer, Peter Costello, that the MCG would be added to the Australian Heritage Register.

It is referred within Australia as the ‘Spiritual Home of Australian Sport’

Stadium development

The first grandstand at the MCG was the original wooden members’ stand built in 1854, while the first public grandstand was a 200-metre long 6000-seat temporary structure built in 1861. Another grandstand seating 2000 and facing one way to the cricket ground and the other way to the park where football was played, was built in 1876 for the 1877 visit of James Lillywhite’s English cricket team. It was during this tour that the first Test Match was played.

In 1881 the original members’ stand was sold to the Richmond Cricket Club for £55. A new brick stand, considered at the time to be the world’s finest cricket facility, was built in its place. The foundation stone was laid by Prince George of Wales and Prince Albert Victor on July 4 and the stand opened in December that year. It was also in 1881 that a telephone was installed at the ground, and the wickets and goal posts were changed from an east-west orientation to north-south. In 1882 a scoreboard was built which showed details of the batsman’s name and how he was dismissed.

When the Lillywhite tour stand burnt down in 1884 it was replaced by a new stand which seated 450 members and 4500 public. In 1897 second storey wings were added to ‘The Grandstand’, as it was known, increasing capacity to 9,000 and in 1900 it was lit with electric light.

More stands were built in the early 20th Century. An open wooden stand was on the south side of the ground in 1904 and the 2084-seat Grey Smith Stand (known as the New Stand until 1912) was erected for members in 1906. The 4000-seat Harrison Stand on the ground’s southern side was built in 1908 followed by the 8000-seat Wardill Stand in 1912. In the 15 years after 1897 the stand capacity at the ground increased to nearly 20,000.

In 1927 the second brick members’ stand was replaced by the present Pavillion at a cost of £60,000. The Harrison and Wardill Stands were demolished in 1936 to make way for the Southern Stand which was completed in 1937. The Southern Stand seated 18,200 under cover and 13,000 in the open and was the main public area of the MCG. It was where the famous Bay 13 was located, the MCG’s equivalent to The Hill at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

The Northern (Olympic) Stand replaced the old Grandstand for the 1956 Olympic Games and ten years later the Grey Smith Stand and the open concrete stand next to it were replaced by the Western (now Ponsford) Stand.

On 3 March 1967 the Duke of Edinburgh laid a foundation stone for a new Western Stand, which was completed in 1968 (known as the Ponsford Stand after 1986).

The MCG was the home of Australia’s first full colour video scoreboard which replaced the old scoreboard in 1982. In 1985 light towers were installed at the ground, allowing for night football and day-night cricket games.

In 1988 inspections of the old Southern Stand found concrete cancer and provided the opportunity to replace the increasingly run-down 50-year-old facility. The projected cost of $100 million was outside what the Melbourne Cricket Club could afford so the Victorian Football League took the opportunity to part fund the project in return for a 30-year deal to share the ground. The new Great Southern Stand was completed in 1992 at a final cost of $150 million.

The 1928 Members’ stand, as well as the 1956 Olympic stand and the 1968 Ponsford stand were demolished in late 2002. They were replaced with a new structure in time for Melbourne to host the 2006 Commonwealth Games. Despite now standing as a single unbroken stand, the individual sections retain the names of Ponsford, Olympic and Members Stands. The redevelopment cost exceeded AUD$400 million and pushed the grounds capacity over the 100,000 mark (when standing room is taken into account). Since redevelopment, the highest attendance was the 2007 First Preliminary Final of the AFL with 98,002. This was also the first time since the 2000 AFL Grand Final that the MCC Members’ Reserve has filled to capacity.

Olympic Games

The MCG’s most famous moment in history was as the main stadium for the 1956 Olympic Games. The MCG was only one of seven possible venues, including the Melbourne Showgrounds, for the Games’ main arena. The MCG was the Federal Government’s preferred venue but there was resistance from the MCG Board. The inability to decide on the central venue nearly caused the Games to be moved from Melbourne. Prime Minister Robert Menzies recognised the potential embarrassment to Australia if this happened and organised a three-day summit meeting to thrash things out. Attending was Victorian Premier John Cain, the Prime Minister, deputy opposition leader Arthur Calwell, all State political leaders, civic leaders, Olympic officials and trustees and officials of the MCG. Convening the meeting was no small effort considering the calibre of those attending and that many of the sports officials were only part-time amateurs.

(source .. wikipedia) reproduced under GFDL

[ Anything to add? Spotted an error? Click here to improve this entry ]

Melbourne Cricket Ground website
Melbourne Cricket Ground wikipedia entry
Collingwood Magpies website
Melbourne Demons website
Demonland Fansite
Hawthorn Hawks website
Hawk Headquarters Fansite
Richmond Tigers website
Punt Road End Fansite
Yellow and Black Fansite
Tiger-Talk Fansite
Victorian Bushrangers website
AFL website
Cricket Australia website

[ Anything to add? Spotted an error? Click here to improve this entry ]