---
node: spot_melbourne_melbourne_cricket_ground
type: spot
slug: melbourne_cricket_ground
destination: dest_melbourne
title: "Melbourne Cricket Ground"
lead: "The MCG holds 100,000 people and is the home of Australian rules football and Test cricket. It is the reason Melbourne calls itself the sporting capital, and it has been in continuous use since 1853."
published: 2026-08-12
updated: 2026-08-12
image_file: spot_melbourne_melbourne_cricket_ground.jpg
image_source: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Melbourne_Cricket_Ground,_west_remote_view_20230219_1.jpg"
image_author: "DXR"
image_license: "CC BY-SA 4.0"
---

## Overview

The ground hosted the first Test match in 1877 and the 1956 Olympic Games, and it fills for the AFL Grand Final each September and the Boxing Day Test each December. The stands were rebuilt over decades, most recently the Northern Stand in 2006, but the oval and the light towers keep the old outline. On a match day the crowd noise is the attraction as much as the game.

## Highlights

The one-hour tour walks the players' race, the changing rooms and the members' pavilion on non-event days. The National Sports Museum inside the ground holds the Australian Gallery of Sport and the Olympic collection. If you can only do one thing, go to a football match — a home-and-away game costs a fraction of a final and fills the place well enough.