Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) - Discussion

[Gibbsy]

As requested by Chief to make individual threads for each stadium. Thought I may as well be the guy.

MELBOURNE CRICKET GROUND (MCG)

Location: Melbourne Park, Melbourne
Opened: 1854
Owner: Government of Victoria
Operator: Melbourne Cricket Club
Capacity: 100,018.

Memorable events:
AFL Grand Final (annually)
Cricket Boxing Day Test (annually)
1956 Melbourne Olympics
2006 Commonwealth Games

Feel free to use this thread to talk about everything to do with the stadium. Facilities, transport, ground surface, your favourite moments, childhood memories, etc. ​

 

[AG]

Greatest stadium in the world. 2005 GF the greatest memory.

Other than friends, this is what I miss most about Melbourne. The MCG. How sad is that.

 

[Marklar_33]

Not sad at all!

Visiting the MCG is like a religious experience

 

[scaryness]

I love going to the MCG.

Sydney vs Richmond in 2009 was my fondest memory because of Micky O's 300th game. that and we smashed them helped as well.

I just wish Sydney would start winning there

 

[funk44]

any word on how the southern stand upgrades are going?

edit had a dig around and found this

http://www.mcg.org.au/The MCG Stadium/Capital Works/Great Southern Stand upgrade/Project update.aspx

Project update: Great Southern Stand

On October 3, 2011 Construction Engineering (head contractor of the Great Southern Stand refurbishment) took possession of a number of spaces for the first phase of work which will continue until just prior to the 2012 AFL season:

Work begins on a redesigned Gate 6 entrance to the Great Southern Stand at the MCG.Level B2

Eastern end of Changeroom No. 3

Level B1

Bunton Bar and Dining Room
Barassi Bar
One food and beverage outlet, public toilets

Level 1

Gate 6 and back to seating bowl
One retail food and beverage outlet adjacent to seating bays M12, M13 and M14
Gate 5 and back to seating bowl

Level 2

Former Melbourne Football Club offices
Ryder Room and Hassett Room

Level 3

Site offices for head contractor and project manager (formerly AFL Victoria offices)

Level 4

Public toilets
Concourse – at various periods throughout the summer period.

These are construction period arrangements and different hoarding plans will occur for international cricket match days and Twenty20 Big Bash League matches.

In March 2012, the major changes patrons will see include:

Level B1: New Haydn Bunton Sports Bar (formerly Bunton Dining Room and Bar).
Level B1: New Barassi Café (formerly Barassi Bar).
Level 1: Refurbished Gates 5 and 6.
Level 1: Refurbished retail food and beverage concession (opposite M12, M13, M14).
Level 2: AFL Members Dining Room (formerly nine corporate suites and MFC offices).
Level 2: Refurbished Ryder and Hassett Rooms.
Level 4: Refurbished concourse and public toilets.

A further update will be provided in March 2012, when another set of areas will be taken off-line and refurbished.



New bar for AFL Members for the start of the season, thank christ, that miniscule bar was a disgrace and a new dining room is a welcome addition

 

[Silent Alarm]

Always love going to Melbourne, for a bevy of reasons. Every stadium, AAMI Park, Eithad, is such a joy to be in. The 'G tops it all though. A ground as intimidating as it is enthralling. My favourite ground, along with Princes Park and Fremantle Oval.

 

[workhorse]

Not sad at all!

Visiting the MCG is like a religious experience

Absolutely! I don't get to go to the footy much but I went to Day 2 of the Boxing Day Test, I walked out to our seats on the Great Southern Stand Wing (First Row) and looked around just in awe. Even though I've been there so many times.

Incredible Stadium

 

[Kwality]

Agree with the feeling when entering the G even if I need oxygen if in the gods.

MCC management got a bollocking last week for closing ALL car parks before midway thru a 20/20 game. Forced potential late comers to go home & watch on Fox.

Do lowly attended cricket games lose money like AFL clubs below 28k (b/e I'm told) or are there different sets of rules for the cash cow?

 

[Kwality]

Here is a historians take on THE PEOPLE'S GROUND:
..... the MCG, long misnamed the Melbourne Cricket Ground, when its principal role was to host football, particularly the GrandFinal. It was run by the private Melbourne Cricket Club and the government appointed MCG Trust; the club no longer paid just a peppercorn rent for the crown land of Yarra Park, where Australian Football had originated in 1858. It appropriated the term ‘the people’s ground’ for itself .... Long running a propaganda campaign, it added the term to the scoreboard, ran a banner along the outside of theGreat Southern Stand while its chief propagandist, crowd warm-up man Stig Wemyss, aka ‘The Voice of the G’, welcomed fans to ‘the people’s ground’

The problems were manifold. While the ground was popular and traditional, the
Melbourne Cricket Club was only marginally more the people’s club than the
Melbourne Club. Its other agenda was more selfish than popular.

http://www.api-network.com/main/pdf/scholars/jas66_alomes.pdf

This was at the time Docklands got off the ground, i.e this century, not last.

 

[Rob]

Agree with the feeling when entering the G even if I need oxygen if in the gods.

MCC management got a bollocking last week for closing ALL car parks before midway thru a 20/20 game. Forced potential late comers to go home & watch on Fox.

Do lowly attended cricket games lose money like AFL clubs below 28k (b/e I'm told) or are there different sets of rules for the cash cow?

I doubt it, because they'd only need to employ 1 gate attendant and skeleton security and cleaners and that's it. To host an AFL match, you would need to find a couple of hundred people to doo all the jobs needed. I believe they also pay for police attendance as well that wouldn't be required at a Shield match with 100 people there.

Teams don't get charged rent in Melbourne, the costs are mostly variable.

 

[Kwality]

I doubt it, because they'd only need to employ 1 gate attendant and skeleton security and cleaners and that's it. To host an AFL match, you would need to find a couple of hundred people to doo all the jobs needed. I believe they also pay for police attendance as well that wouldn't be required at a Shield match with 100 people there.

Teams don't get charged rent in Melbourne, the costs are mostly variable.

Its that new fangled game Rob, not Shield, people go to the games, just not 28k to the G.

 

[Rob]

Its that new fangled game Rob, not Shield, people go to the games, just not 28k to the G.

Well then it depends how many people they hire to work at the ground.

I'd also expect that a 30k crowd to a BBL game would be worth more at the gate than a 30k crowd to an AFL game, as BBL teams have tiny memberships. So the break even figure would be a lot less because the gate revenue is a lot more.

 

[Tulip]

Is there anything better than that feeling when you're on a relatively packed train on a Friday night after a hard week and you first catch a glance of the G with it's lights on below the clouds?

Best way to start a weekend.

Of course, I always go out of my way to educate Richmond, Collingwood and Hawthorn supporters whose stadium it really is.

 

[funk44]

Of course, I always go out of my way to educate Richmond, Collingwood and Hawthorn supporters whose stadium it really is.

Melbourne Cricket Club?

 

[PP34]

My favourite stadium and I would call it the best stadium in the world but I can't judge others when I haven't been to another stadium overseas. I cannot wait until my MCC membership arrives. They are really slow though with the waiting list though.

 

[Tulip]

Melbourne Cricket Club?

Yep. Creators of the Melbourne Football Club who played their first game there in 1858. Didn't officially move in until 1869 though

 

[The_Reaper]

Melbourne Cricket Club?

The Melbourne Football club is part of the MCC.

 

[toeknee2]

The Melbourne football club own jack. They have riden the G's coat tails longer than anyone else, big whoop.

The MCG was built with AFL money by the MCC and MCG trust but it is owned by the Queen. Like to see her try and keep us out though, not a chance.

The MCG is special to us all because of what we have seen take place in there. And none of my greatest memories involve the Melbourne football club.

 

[Tulip]

Fact remains, we're still the only Melbourne club to not ditch their original patch of grass for 'greener pastures'

 

[azza29]

Fact remains, we're still the only Melbourne club to not ditch their original patch of grass for 'greener pastures'

If the AFL and state government had sunk as much cash into Windy Hill as they did the MCG, the Bombers would probably still play their home games there too.

Let's not ignore the fact that the Dees benefit significantly from having much higher-drawing clubs play at their traditional ground. Melbourne only managed to crack the 50k (i.e. 50% full) mark at one home game last year, while Collingwood and Essendon managed at least that figure for all but one of their MCG games.

 

[West_Coast_Eagles]

If the AFL and state government had sunk as much cash into Windy Hill as they did the MCG, the Bombers would probably still play their home games there too.

Let's not ignore the fact that the Dees benefit significantly from having much higher-drawing clubs play at their traditional ground. Melbourne only managed to crack the 50k (i.e. 50% full) mark at one home game last year, while Collingwood and Essendon managed at least that figure for all but one of their MCG games.

hahahaha thats funny. it was hard to park at windy hill aus day for 2,000 at a cricket match. imagine they built a stadium to 50,000 people would be parking there car 35 mins away

 

[toeknee2]

Fact remains, we're still the only Melbourne club to not ditch their original patch of grass for 'greener pastures'

By default and due to circumstance. Nothing to be proud of, its not like you have been the only club big and strong enough to keep their shop doors open. We all out grew ours, have you grown?

Don't forget the Blues azza29, we AVERAGED well over 53k per home game last year and that includes some sell outs at the Dome. Love to see us get that many into PP.

 

[stmookeyj]

One of the great walks from the city to the ground for mine. Hop off at Flinders Street, across Fed Square, follow the path along the river, head over the bridge that is made reference to in Paul Kelly's song "Leaps and Bounds" (the clock on the silo however no longer reads 11 degrees, or anything for that matter), then through the park up to the ground.

 

[Tulip]

I'm not being fully serious guys, I just find the 'love' and 'connections' that people like Eddie McGuire talk about their clubs having with G to be a bit contentious. Toeknee: Do we have to outgrow it? We got Prime Real Estate

 

[toeknee2]

Don't worry High flyer i always type with a smile on my face, even when I'm sick at home as I am right now.
I'm glad you feel nice and cosy when you play at the G, we all do. It really is the heart of our city. You must have expected a bit of heat when you tried to claim more ownership of it than the rest of us, it is an antagonising view.