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Published: December 2nd 2006
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MCG
Melbourne Cricket Ground or MCG. Also called the G. The people around Melbourne love their sports and I think Melbourne was recently voted the best sporting city in the world. It was also voted 2nd best city to live in as well I hear right behind Vancouver. Melbourne had the Olympics in 1956 and also play host to the Australian tennis open which is the first major tennis tournament of the year happening in Jan. Due to those events, they have 3 major stadiums all basically side by side and an olympic swimming pool as well.
Melbourne Cricket Grounds
The MCG of "The G" as they refer to it, is where the opening ceremonies at the olympics was held and also where the Australian Football League has its final and where the major cricket games are also played. The Ashes tournament, which is a series of 5 test cricket matches (each test is up to 5 days long) between England and Australia, dates back to 1882 and is being held in Australia this year. The first test was held in Brisbane which Australia won early on the 5th day. Now I had never seen a cricket game before but some how ended up watching the entire 5 day test!
Olympic Park Stadium
Built for the 1956 Olympics, held swimming, diving, hockey, soccer, and athletics competitions. The play starts at 10am or so and goes until light becomes a factor. Not sure if I actually like the game that much or if I was spending the whole time trying to figure out the rules but one thing is that it was more interesting then baseball in my opinion. The second test is being played in Adelaide with today being the second day of play and the big 3rd test takes place boxing day and will be held in Melbourne at the MCG. The MCG holds around 100000 people and has 6 massive light towers that can put out 2000 Watts each. For any of you who are season ticket holders, compare what you pay for the one team for a season against the $400 each member of the MCG pays for the entire year which includes all events cricket and otherwise save major matches. If you want the major finals as well, it's $500 or so. If you want to become a member though, you need to join the other 19000 people on the waiting list. The only way to lose membership other then to stop paying is to die. There is no transfering of memberships
Rod Laver Arena
One of the 2 main stadiums for the Australian Open. This one holds the finals and is also the location for a few concerts and other events throughout the year. either so families with put in for memberships for their kids right after they are born to get them in line. I might see about getting tickets to one of the days for the boxing day test since there are some left and would be cool just to be a part of the atmosphere in the stadium.
Rod Laver Arena
The MCG is separated by the other near by stadiums by quite a few train tracks but there are foot bridges to get you over. The 2 stadiums on this side are surrounded by many other tennis courts (I think I saw signs diving directions to 24 others or something like that) and is the home of the Australian open. The main arena is Rod Laver Arena which was built in 1987 and can hold 16000 people. the roof of the arena is retractible and takes roughly 20 minutes to close. A lot of the arenas around Melbourne allow for moveable roofs to compensate the highly varialbe weather so the sports can continue no matter the conditions outside.
Vodaphone Arena
With the increasing number events held at the Rod Laver Arena, and the increase in popularity of the
Vodaphone Arena
Directly across from Rod Laver arena, holds the other main tennis court during the tournament. Australian open, a second arena was built called the Vodaphone Arena which has a 10000 seat court for tennis and can also convert to a basketball court and velodrome for cycling. Vodaphone arena is the only venue in Melbourne that was built specifically to host a wide range of event where all the other locations have since been adapted from there original purpose to host various events.
Olympic Park
The olympic park was built for the 1956 Olympics and originally consisted of two stadiums and a velodrome. The one stadium shown in the picture is the Lexus Center and is 5500 seat swimming pool where they also held the diving competitions. I didn't get the tour of that complex so don't have a shot of the stadium in the back which for the Olympics held soccer, hockey and athletics competitions. Since then, they have adapted the pitch to suit rugby and also made the field into Australias first FIFA certified soccer pitch and it can accomodate up to 18500 people. In the 70's, they demolished te velodrome to make a parking lot.
Telstra Dome
The Olympic Park and other stadiums are located just south of the CBD and
Field level in MCG
There are tours every half an hour so got an intimate look around the stadium. right along the west side near the docks is the Telstra Dome. the Telstra Dome is yet another multi purpose sports facility and is the home for 5 different AFL teams. As such, the home and visitors dressing rooms are identicle since it is possible to be the visitor in your own building with that set up. The dome was completed in 2000 and has a fixed seating capacity of almost 54000. With the moveable first row of stands and for comcerts held there, they can support 12000-74000 people. U2 had a couple shows there the other week and became the first group to have back to back sold out shows in the stadium. The builtding supports the largest retractible roof in the southern hemisphere and can close in 8 minutes. They had the first indoor cricket match in this stadium and for any of you cricket enthusiasts, the roof has only ever been hit once (being 38 meters above the playing surface) on October 9th 2005 by Australian Cricketer Michael Hussey.
I went and saw the Melbourne Victory play in the stadium which is there premier soccer team here. They had the dome closed since it was a
MCG
Shot of the CBD from MCG late game but the lighting made it feel like mid day. There was 32000 people at the game and you could hear the echo of the first level stands when people would all stamp their feet since the staqnds are hollow undearneath for when they are moved out onto the field. they kept them back for this game since it was only a season game.
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Keely
non-member comment
Your comment that cricket is better than baseball immediately got you in Terry's (my bf) good books! I hear the second match was pretty amazing.