Copyright Clancy Tucker (c)
MELBOURNE CRICKET GROUND
M.C.G
G'day
guys,
Today I
introduce a stadium I have visited many times - The Melbourne Cricket Ground -
MCG. Melbourne is the capital of Victoria, a southern state of Australia.
Lord’s,
Wembley, Old Trafford, Eden Gardens and Yankee Stadium are considered among the
greatest sporting arenas in the world, but for history, pure drama and emotion,
it’s hard to look past the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
The
ground was built way back in 1853 when the then 15-year-old Melbourne Cricket
Club was forced by the government to move from its former site because the
route of Australia’s first steam train was to pass through the oval.
Since
then the MCG has established a marvellous history that compares favourably with
any other in the world, hosting plenty of international cricket including the
first-ever Test and the 1992 World Cup final, countless VFL/AFL Grand Finals,
and the 1956 Olympic Games.
Other
sporting spectacles that have been held there are Australian World Cup soccer
qualifiers, rugby league home and away matches and State of Origin,
international rugby union clashes and the 2006 Commonwealth Games.
Shane
Warne
Apart
from its sporting events, the MCG has also witnessed many blockbuster music
concerts, and even Pope John Paul II held a mass there when he visited
Melbourne in 1986. People from all over Australia, and indeed all over the
world, speak reverently about the MCG, a ground that is as well-known as any
other.
Since its
inception in 1838, the Melbourne Cricket Club (MCC) has regarded the
preservation and display of its rich heritage collection as paramount.
The display of this heritage when hosting visitors and significant events
at the Melbourne Cricket Ground has given the MCG an enviable reputation.
In
December 2005, the MCG was granted Australia's highest heritage honour -
inclusion on the National Heritage List
- in
recognition of its outstanding significance to the nation.
The
northern stand redevelopment completed the following year provided the MCC
with the opportunity to enhance its commitment to heritage with a
much-improved MCC Museum and other heritage features throughout the stadium,
including the Tattersall’s
Parade of Champions and the National
Sports Museum.
It’s also fitting in that a great number of the sports stars honoured in the National Sports Museum have etched their names in the national memory through their achievements here at the MCG.
MCG Facts
and Figures
Find out
the latest facts and figures about the famous Melbourne Cricket Ground! The
number of seats, the size of the arena, type of grass used - it's all here.
Stadium Capacity
The total
capacity of the MCG is approximately 100,000.
This
comprises 95,000 seats and 5000 standing room spaces, which are sold at the
discretion of the event promoter.
However,
the realistic capacity for most events is usually between 98,000 and 99,000 as
often not all standing room tickets are placed on sale.
Arena Turf
The MCG
was first surveyed in 1861 by MCC committeeman Robert Bagot, who changed the
ground’s configuration into what is today’s conventional oval. It previously
was an irregular hexagon with a band rotunda in the northern corner.
The arena
remained virtually unchanged until it was re-modelled to international
athletics specifications and a cinder track was installed for the Olympic Games
in November 1956.
After the
Games, much of the arena was reconstructed and red mountain soil laid to a
depth of about 60cm. Compaction over the years gave this soil the consistency
of clay and major drainage problems began to surface in the late 1980s.
In the spring of 1992 the arena was completely reconstructed with a sand-based profile, giving the ground remarkable drainage characteristics and superior load-bearing ability.
Dimensions
The MCG
arena now has a total of approximately 20,000 square metres in area and
measures 173.6 long x 148.3 metres wide, from fence to fence. The boundary
line is located five metres inside the fence.
The
volume of the MCG is 1,700,000 cubic metres, or 1.7 million cubic metres.
The goal
posts for AFL matches are 15 metres in height (point posts are 10 metres high))
and the length of the cricket pitch is 22 yards, which in metric terms is 20.12
metres. Other AFL-specific measurements are:
- Centre square - four lines are each 50 metres in length.
- Goal square width is 6.4 metres.
- Goal square length is 9 metres.
The ground
holds 114 sprinklers and the grass is a mixture of couch and rye grass.
Arena Management
In any given year, approximately 3000m2 of the centre corridor could be re-laid, depending on wear.
This
number has been greatly reduced due to the use of artificial growth
lights that can
be deployed in numerous configurations to overcome shade and wear issues during
the winter.
Approximately
350 man-hours are spent per week maintaining the turf, which includes rolling,
cutting, line marking, fertilising, repairing irrigation, deploying artificial
lighting rigs, re-turfing, match preparation, equipment maintenance, planning
and scheduling.
Aussie,
Aussie, Aussie!
Irrigation
Any
watering of the MCG turf will comply with the current guidelines for Stage 3
Water Restrictions as detailed in the relevant water authorities’ Drought
Response Plan’.The grass
is cut daily in summer and twice a week in the winter. It is cut at a length of
11mm during the summer and 27mm during the winter.
Sirens
The MCG
sirens comprise of eight banks of four horns each strategically located around
the ground. Their locations are:
Northern
Stand - The
siren banks are mounted in four positions on the lighting gantry at Bays 33,
38, 45 and 51.
Great
Southern Stand - The
siren banks are mounted in four positions on the lighting gantry at Bays 2, 8,
15 and 23.
The siren controls are located in the Ron Casey Media Centre on Level 3 of the Olympic Stand and are operated by pressing two red buttons simultaneously. In the advent of a power failure, there is a UPS system in place to guard against this occurrence.
Access control
Attendance
figures are governed by the bar code scanning turnstiles and other devices at
all entry points around the ground.
Depending
on the entry point, attendance figures are broken up into various categories,
which are used for statistical information and future reference.
The
categories include MCC members, MCC members’ visitors, AFL members, AFL
members’ guests, Corporate, (suites and dining rooms), officials, media, Home
Club members, Away Club members, Reserved seating and General Admission.
The
access control software registers each patron entering the ground as their
ticket is scanned and calculates the actual attendance figure.
The
official attendance figure is then relayed to the scoreboard control room to
post onto the scoreboards and is usually done at about the 15-minute mark of
the last quarter during football or the last hour of other events.
Vision boards/Scoreboards
The MCG has two electronic video screen vision boards, located on Level 4 at either end of the new northern stand.
The
western end vision board was re-installed in April, 2004 as part of the MCG
redevelopment. It had initially been removed in October, 2002 when the Ponsford
Stand was demolished.
A second vision board - a Sony JumboTron - had existed in the Olympic Stand since September 1994, but was removed and sold prior to the demolition of the Olympic Stand in October, 2004.
A new
state-of-the-art Mitsubishi screen at the eastern end was installed in
late-2005.
MCG
patrons have been well served by scoreboards since the early days. There was a
large informative board erected at the western end of the ground in 1881 and a
more sophisticated brick scoreboard replaced it in 1895.
In 1907
another scoreboard, of timber construction and operated by a bicycle chain
mechanism, was erected at the Punt Road end of the ground. It was later
relocated to the city end and informed spectators for more than 70 years before
it was replaced by the country’s first full-colour video replay scoreboard in
1982.
Security and
Surveillance Cameras
There are
a number of security and surveillance cameras around the venue. These are used
for protection of property and assets and for the purposes of crowd control on
event days.
On an
event day the surveillance cameras are controlled by the Police in the upper
levels of the Olympic Stand and are used to detect inappropriate behaviour in
the crowd.
Security at the MCG has control of various surveillance cameras that are used primarily for the protection of the property and many assets the ground has displayed.
1956
Olympics
Clancy's comment: the M.C.G sure is a fine stadium. The atmosphere, at an Australian Rules Football Grand Final, is simply breathtaking.
I'm ...
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