MCG Great Hall
The iconic home of Australian sport, the MCG is the largest stadium in the Southern Hemisphere and host of the annual AFL Grand Final and Boxing Day Test.
The Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), also known locally as the 'G', is a multi-purpose stadium located in Yarra Park in the suburb of East Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The stadium primarily hosts Australian rules football and cricket as the home ground of multiple teams in the Australian Football League (AFL), as well as the Melbourne Renegades and the Melbourne Stars in the Big Bash League (BBL) and the Victorian cricket team in the Sheffield Shield. It also frequently hosts the Australian national cricket team. The ground was established by the Melbourne Cricket Club (MCC), who selected the site in 1853 and opened the ground in 1854; the MCC continues to manage and operate the site. The stadium itself is owned by the Victorian Government through its appointed MCG Trust.
Quick Facts
- Significance
- Second largest cricket stadium in the world by capacity, behind the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, India
Lore & Background
The MCG is built atop a Wurundjeri camping ground and site of numerous corroborees. Founded in November 1838 the Melbourne Cricket Club (MCC) selected the current MCG site in 1853 after previously playing at several grounds around Melbourne. The club's first game was against a military team at the Old Mint site, at the corner of William and La Trobe Streets. Burial Hill (now Flagstaff Gardens) became its home ground in January 1839, but the area was already set aside for Botanical Gardens and the club was moved on in October 1846, to an area on the south bank of the Yarra about where the Herald & Weekly Times building is today. The area was subject to flooding, forcing the club to move again, this time to a ground in South Melbourne. It was not long before the club was forced out again, this time because of the expansion of the railway. The South Melbourne ground was in the path of Victoria's first steam railway line from Melbourne to Sandridge (now Port Melbourne). Governor La Trobe offered the MCC a choice of three sites; an area adjacent to the existing ground, a site at the junction of Flinders and Spring Streets or a ten-acre (about 4 hectares) section of the Government Paddock at Richmond next to Richmond Park. Between European settlement in 1835 and the early 1860s, this last option, which is now Yarra Park, was known as the Government or Police Paddock and served as a large agistment area for the horses of the Mounted Police, Border Police and Native Police. The north-eastern section also housed the main barracks for the Mounted Police in the Port Phillip district. In 1850 it was part of a 200 acre stretch set aside for public recreation extending from Governor La Trobe's Jolimont Estate to the Yarra River. By 1853 it had become a busy promenade for Melbourne residents. An MCC sub-committee chose the Richmond Park option because it was level enough for cricket but sloped enough to prevent inundation. That ground was located where the Richmond, or outer, end of the current MCG is now. At the same time the Richmond Cricket Club was given occupancy rights to 6 acre for another cricket ground on the eastern side of the Government Paddock. In 1861, a board of trustees was appointed to be responsible for the ground.
Reader's Guide
The MCG is the host venue of the annual AFL Grand Final, the world's second-highest attended league championship event, and the annual Boxing Day Test match. The stadium has hosted two Cricket World Cup finals (1992 and 2015). It was the venue for the opening and closing ceremonies in the 1956 Summer Olympics, where it also hosted athletics and the finals for hockey and football. It also hosted the opening and closing ceremonies, along with athletics, during the 2006 Commonwealth Games. The stadium has also hosted matches during the State of Origin rugby league series, football in the 2000 Summer Olympics, and the Bledisloe Cup. The MCG also hosted both the first Test match and the first One Day International, played between Australia and England in 1877 and 1971, respectively. Since it was built in 1853, the MCG has undergone numerous renovations, with capacity of the stadium now standing at approximately 95,000 (with an additional 5,000 for standing-room only), bringing the total capacity to 100,024. It is the largest stadium in Australia, the eleventh-largest stadium globally, the second-largest cricket stadium by capacity and the largest stadium in the Southern Hemisphere. It is listed on both the Victorian Heritage Register and the Australian National Heritage List and is the home of the Australian Sports Museum.
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