Magazine: Exploring The Melbourne Rectangular Stadium
By Editor in Football on 4th Feb 2010 6:00
Talk to anyone from Melbourne and the above cliché is likely to somehow find its way into the conversation.
Indeed, the suggestion is that no other city in Australia knows how to host a sporting event like Melbourne, though that reputation perhaps stems mostly from the city’s AFL density, ‘Grand Final Day’ something of a national day of celebration among fans of the code and certainly generating enough interest to cause a glance even among its sceptics.
The city’s sporting identity appears to have at its heart iconic imagery provided by the Melbourne Cricket Ground as the home of Australia’s first ever Olympic games, it’s standing as an Aussie Rules Mecca and of course, as the nation’s biggest cricketing venue.
Yet the absence of a home for football, ‘The world game’, has been conspicuous and perhaps has played into the hands of the ancient stereotype about Victoria’s anti-football movement. Most recently the rather unwise comments by AFL CEO Andrew Demetriou – ironically about stadium and fixture wrangling – served to highlight such a view of the country’s Aussie Rules heartland.
The construction of a purpose-built stadium for football – the Melbourne Rectangular Stadium - might just go some way to restoring the city and state’s reputation and perhaps allow it to begin to truly complete its sporting identity. Even the resident Aussie Rules zealots must grudgingly admit that without a football stadium, the city cannot be considered a global leader in sport, regardless of personal feelings toward the round-ball code.
Ignoring for a moment the technical details of what appears to be an aesthetically pleasing and unique stadium, it is perhaps a symbol of football’s new standing within the Australian sporting landscape.
Melbourne Victory starlet Evan Berger said “You look around in Europe, you’ve obviously got Wembley, the Nou Camp, the San Siro, all the big stadiums that know that they are there for football, where the name of that stadium comes back to football. To be able to have a stadium here in Australia that’s the home of football and to have something similar to the MCG, hopefully this stadium can become that for football.”
The Victory will indeed share the stadium with the city’s resident Rugby League representative, the Melbourne Storm, as well as it’s incoming Rugby Union outfit.
Along with new A-League franchise the Melbourne Heart, it will make four clubs across three different codes calling the stadium home and allows it to stand as a symbol of peace at a time where the awakening of the sleeping giant of football has unsettled the traditional establishment.
World class facilities for the team itself include a gym, pool, ice baths, a permanent change room and even a video-editing suite.
This stadium will be a world leader and has an amazing design. It features a unique bio-frame that... is a world first, with the roof which takes advantages of a dome structure,” Miles continues.
“It also includes over a thousand LED lights within this roof which will light up the stadium. We believe it will stand out; fans approaching it on match night won’t be able to miss it. It will provide so much anticipation by the look and the feel of the stadium, which is unique world-wide.
“The design of the roof is amazing. We’ve seen the visuals of the lights show that will be possible with the one thousand LED lights. It looks incredible and that’s going to be a real standout on match night.
“There will be a whole range of different artistic visual effects which will create a great look and ambiance for fans coming to the game. You won’t miss this stadium from so many parts around Melbourne, particularly on match night. It will be a living, breathing stadium which we certainly haven’t seen before in Melbourne.”
The conspicuous physical presence of the stadium, which will sit alongside the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground, only serves to highlight the cultural and sporting significance it will have on the city and indeed physically etches the Victory into its sporting landscape.
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