Although the Melbourne Cricket Ground is arguably one of the two most important cricket grounds in the world and one of if not the greatest sports stadium in Australia, it is much more to the people of Melbourne. It is one of the great icons of this city and reflects its devotion to sport. It has often been said that you could draw a crowd of 50,000 in Melbourne to watch two flys crawling up a wall, such is Victorians' love of anything to do with sport. The MCG has been ingrained in the locals' psyche over the past 50 years and it fittingly reflects the enormous fascination Victorians have with sport.

The reason for its national iconic status is summed up well by an entry on an internet blog about Australia's iconic buildings - "only been there twice, but it is the centre of Australian culture (and we should never be ashamed that for us culture is 90,000 people enjoying ourselves while eating bad food in the sun washed down with beer in plastic cups and another few million watching it on TV wishing they were there)".

Just as Melbourne is the sports capital of Australia, the MCG is sport's holy temple. Melbourne's great fascination with sport probably emanates from the city's resentment at having to play second fiddle to Sydney in terms of climate and spectacular harbour setting. By establishing great sporting traditions such as the Melbourne Cup and Australian Rules Football Grand Finals, Melbourne was able to outdo the harbour city.

By the 1950's, Melbourne's reputation as the sports capital of Australia was so firmly entrenched that it was a foregone conclusion that the city would host the Olympic Games. (The ground capacity of the MCG was also a major contributing factor). The grand final of Australian Football is always played at the MCG, and in recent times the holy grail of rugby, the Bledisloe Cup, was played in Melbourne for the first time in front of some of the biggest crowds ever seen at a rugby match.

With a seating capacity of 100,000, the MCG hosts more than 90 days of cricket and Australian Rules football each year and attendances exceed 3.5 million people annually. The MCG is within 15 minutes walking distance from the city centre and has two nearby railway stations, a tramway and bus links with all suburbs. The surrounding parkland accommodates about 6,000 cars.

Australian runner Ron Clarke lights the Olympic flame at the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games, Melbourne Cricket Ground. Photo: News Ltd.

The MCG first came to prominence outside of Victoria when it was selected as the main stadium for the 1956 olympic Games. Conducted against the backdrop of the Suez crisis and the Hungarian Revolution, the Melbourne Olympics began in October 1956. Competitors such as Betty Cuthbert, Shirley Strickland, Murray Rose and Dawn Fraser dominated their events and television, introduced in Australia in time to broadcast the events, made sure their success became part of Australian sporting history.

Apart from the 1956 Olympic Stand, towards which £100,000 was advanced by the State Government as an Olympic Games commitment, all grandstands at the MCG were financed entirely by Melbourne Cricket Club members' subscriptions, until the advent of the Great Southern Stand in 1992 when revenue from corporate entertainment facilities also became an important income stream.

The massive $150 million Great Southern Stand project required special financial arrangements based on a long-term contract with the MCG Trust, the Australian Football League and the State Government. The stand accommodates 44,500 spectators and corporate clients, with more than 40,000 comfortably seated on four levels.

The MCC Members Reserve always has occupied only a minor section of the viewing area. The original wooden members' stand of 1854 was sold in 1881 for £55 to the Richmond Cricket Club. The stand was replaced by a brick structure recognised at the time as the world's finest cricket facility.

This in turn was replaced by the Members' Pavilion, built in 1927 for £60,000. The Members Reserve, which embraced adjoining sections of the Olympic and Ponsford Stands, until recently had seating capacity for 18,500 people and standing room for about 1500.

The MCG underwent a $430m redevelopment on the northern side of the stadium between 2002 and 2006; the upgrade was in part to prepare it as the main venue for the 2006 Commonwealth Games, which were hosted by the city of Melbourne. The redevelopment involved the demolition of the Pavilion, Ponsford and Olympic Stands. The present capacity (including seating and standing room) of the MCG is just over 100,000. Up until October 2002, the capacity of the ground was 96,308. 

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The Melbourne Cricket Ground hosting the 2006 Commonwealth Games