The Melbourne Sports and Entertainment Precinct is a series of sports stadiums and venues, located in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

, in Australia. The precinct is situated around 3 km east of the

Melbourne city centre The Melbourne central business district (also known colloquially as simply "The City" or "The CBD") is the city centre and main urban area of the city of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, centred on the Hoddle Grid, the oldest part of the city la ...

, located in suburbs of Melbourne and Jolimont, near

East Melbourne East Melbourne is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, east of Melbourne's Melbourne central business district, Central Business District, located within the City of Melbourne Local government areas of ...

and Richmond. It is considered to be Australia's "premier sports precinct" and regularly hosts some of the biggest domestic and international sporting events, including the

AFL Grand Final The AFL Grand Final is an Australian rules football match to determine the premiers for the Australian Football League (AFL) season. From its inception until 1989, it was known as the VFL Grand Final, as the league at that time was the Victori ...

( Australian rules football), Australian Open (

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

) and

Boxing Day Test The Boxing Day Test match is a cricket Test match held in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, involving the Australian cricket team and an opposing national team that is touring Australia during the southern summer. It begins annually on Boxing ...

(

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by str ...

). The venues have also previously hosted the 1956 Summer Olympics (for which the Precinct served as the

Olympic Park An Olympic Park is a sports campus for hosting the Olympic Games. Typically it contains the Olympic Stadium and the International Broadcast Centre. It may also contain the Olympic Village or some of the other sports venues, such as the aquatics ...

) and 2006 Commonwealth Games.
Melbourne - Major Sporting Events Capital
'
Hotel.com.au
/ref>Melbourne & Olympic Parks (Overview)
/ref>1956 Summer Olympics official report.
pp. 41-2. The precinct comprises three areas:

Melbourne Park Melbourne Park is a sports venue in the Melbourne Sports and Entertainment Precinct in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Since 1988 Australia's bicentenary, Melbourne Park has been home of the Australian Open Grand Slam tennis tournament played ...

and

Yarra Park Yarra Park (35.469 hectares) is part of the Melbourne Sports and Entertainment Precinct, the premier sporting precinct of Victoria, Australia. Located in Yarra Park is the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) and numerous sporting fields and ovals, in ...

Sports venues and stadiums

Of the three Park precincts;

and

, the Olympic and Melbourne Parks are jointly managed by the Melbourne & Olympic Parks Trust, and Yarra Park is managed separately by the

Melbourne Cricket Club The Melbourne Cricket Club (MCC) is a sports club based in Melbourne, Australia. It was founded in 1838 and is one of the oldest sports clubs in Australia. The MCC is responsible for management and development of the Melbourne Cricket Ground, ...

. The precinct is bordered to the north by Wellington Parade, to the east by

Punt Road Hoddle Highway is an urban highway in Melbourne linking CityLink and the Eastern Freeway, itself a sub-section of Hoddle Main Road. Both these names are not widely known to most drivers, as the entire allocation is still best known as by the n ...

, to the south by the

Yarra River The Yarra River or historically, the Yarra Yarra River, ( Kulin languages: ''Berrern'', ''Birr-arrung'', ''Bay-ray-rung'', ''Birarang'', ''Birrarung'', and ''Wongete'') is a perennial river in south-central Victoria, Australia. The lower s ...

, and to the west by Batman Avenue.

Olympic Park

* AAMI Park (capacity 30,050; outdoor), the premier purpose-built venue for rectangular field sports (

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 11 ...

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...

and

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

), and used for large outdoor stadium concerts. *Holden Centre (

Melbourne Sports and Entertainment Centre The Melbourne Sports and Entertainment Centre (originally known as the Swimming and Diving Stadium and now known commercially as the AIA Vitality Centre) is a sports administration and training facility located in the Melbourne Sports and Entert ...

) (indoor), a training facility used by the Collingwood Football Club, but formerly a 7,000 capacity stadium used originally for swimming, then later for basketball. *

Olympic Park Oval Olympic Park Oval is an Australian rules football ground located on the site of the former Olympic Park Stadium in Olympic Park, Melbourne. The Oval's is primarily utilised as the training ground of the Collingwood Football Club and as a venue ...

(capacity 3,000; outdoor), a public playing field & running track, now primarily used for training purposes by the Collingwood Football Club. *Gosch's Paddock, a public playing field, previously used for training by the Collingwood Football Club, and now used by the Melbourne Football Club, Melbourne Storm Rugby League Club and

Melbourne Victory FC Melbourne Victory Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Melbourne, Victoria. Competing in the country's premier men's competition, the A-League Men, under licence from Australian Professional Leagues (APL), Victory ...

for training and administrative purposes.

Former venues

Eastern Sportsground Eastern Sportsground also known as Olympic Park No.2 was a multi-purpose outdoor stadium located on Olympic Boulevard in inner Melbourne. The stadium was built as a field hockey venue for the 1956 Olympics. It was primarily used for greyhound rac ...

(aka No. 2 Oval), the stadium that hosted the preliminary rounds of the field hockey competition at the 1956 Olympics. Afterward it was used for greyhound racing, then demolished for the first Collingwood training ground (Edwin Flack Field) in the precinct and later became the site of the southern section of AAMI Park. * Motordrome (capacity 32,000 for racing and 15,000 for football; outdoor), a former speedway and Australian rules football ground. Demolished in 1951 and replaced by Olympic Park Stadium. * Olympic Park Stadium (capacity 18,500; outdoor), formerly the premier venue for

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping eve ...

and rectangular field sports. The stadium was superseded for rectangular field sports by AAMI Park in 2011 and was demolished in 2011/12. *Velodrome (capacity 4,400; indoor), a 333 metre long

velodrome A velodrome is an arena for track cycling. Modern velodromes feature steeply banked oval tracks, consisting of two 180-degree circular bends connected by two straights. The straights transition to the circular turn through a moderate easement ...

that was used for the track cycling events at the 1956 Olympics. This venue was located on the northern section of AAMI Park.

Melbourne Park

Rod Laver Arena Rod Laver Arena is a multipurpose arena located within Melbourne Park, in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The arena is the main venue for the Australian Open, the first Grand Slam tennis tournament of the calendar year. History Replacing ...

(capacity 15,000;

retractable roof A retractable roof is a roof system designed to roll back the roof of a structure so that the interior of the facility is open to the outdoors. Retractable roofs are sometimes referred to as operable roofs or retractable skylights. The term op ...

), the premier venue for large indoor stadium concerts, and centre court for

in Melbourne Park. Also used in the past for

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

. *

John Cain Arena John Cain Arena is a multi-purpose sports and entertainment arena located within Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is the second-largest venue and show court for the Australian Open, the first Grand Slam professional tenni ...

(capacity 10,500; retractable roof), the premier venue for basketball and

netball Netball is a ball sport played on a court by two teams of seven players. It is among a rare number of sports which have been created exclusively for female competitors. The sport is played on indoor and outdoor netball courts and is specifical ...

, the second largest court for tennis in Melbourne Park, and a venue for indoor stadium concerts. Can be converted to a

for major

track cycling Track cycling is a bicycle racing sport usually held on specially built banked tracks or velodromes using purpose-designed track bicycles. History Track cycling has been around since at least 1870. When track cycling was in its infancy, it ...

events. *

Margaret Court Arena Margaret Court Arena is a multi-purpose sports and entertainment venue located in Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The arena, which was built in 1987 and redeveloped in the mid-2010s, has a capacity of 7,500. History Originally ...

(capacity 7,500; retractable roof), the third-largest capacity tennis court in Melbourne Park. Also used for netball, basketball, music and other types of events. * Show Court Arena (capacity 5,000; no roof), the fourth-largest capacity tennis court in Melbourne Park, was opened prior to the

2022 Australian Open The 2022 Australian Open was a Grand Slam tennis tournament that took place at Melbourne Park, Australia from 17 to 30 January 2022. It was the 110th edition of the Australian Open, the 54th in the Open Era, and the first Grand Slam of the ye ...

. *Melbourne Park Tennis Complex/National Tennis Centre, including two outdoor show courts (each with a 3,000 seating capacity), five indoor courts and twenty-eight outdoor

Greenset GreenSet is a brand of acrylic hardcourt surface used in many professional tennis events run by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and on the ATP and WTA tours. It is made of layers of acrylic resin and silica on top of an asphalt or conc ...

courts, eight

clay courts A clay court is one of the types of tennis court on which the sport of tennis, originally known as "lawn tennis", is played. Clay courts are made of crushed stone, brick, shale, or other unbound mineral aggregate depending on the tournament. T ...

(which are not used professionally), all which are used for professional matches and available for public hire.

Yarra Park

* Melbourne Cricket Ground (capacity 100,000; outdoor), the premier venue for

and Australian rules football, and occasionally for other high-drawing field sports events. *

Punt Road Oval Punt Road Oval, also known by naming rights sponsorship as the Swinburne Centre, is an Australian rules football ground and former cricket oval located within the Yarra Park precinct of East Melbourne, Victoria, situated a few hundred metres to ...

(capacity 15,000; outdoor), training facility for the Richmond Football Club, but formerly used for

VFL/AFL The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football league in Australia serving as one of the second-tier regional semi-professional competitions which sit underneath the fully professional Australian Football League (AFL). I ...

Australian rules football matches and premier grade cricket. * National Sports Museum, located at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

Former venues

East Melbourne Cricket Ground The East Melbourne Cricket Ground was a grass oval sports venue located at the corner of Wellington Parade and Jolimont Parade, in East Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.Santo Caruso, Marc Fiddian and Jim Main, ''Football Grounds of Melbourne'' (Mel ...

, located in the north-western corner of Yarra Park, and used for Australian rules football and premier grade cricket. Demolished 1922 to make way for the Jolimont railyards.

1956 Olympic Games

For the 1956 Summer Olympics, several venues hosted Olympic events. The

field hockey Field hockey is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with ten outfield players and a goalkeeper. Teams must drive a round hockey ball by hitting it with a hockey stick towards the rival team's shooting ...

, soccer, and the aquatic events.

Access

The precinct is located adjacent to both the Richmond and Jolimont railway stations; every train servicing the eastern side of Melbourne passes through one of these two stations. The precinct is also serviced by three tram routes from the city centre. Three footbridges are provided to cross the railway lines which divide the northern and southern halves of the precinct. The area in Yarra Park surrounding the Melbourne Cricket Ground is made available for ticketed car parking during major events in the precinct; free parking in the surrounding streets is available but limited.

References

External links

Melbourne & Olympic Parks official websiteYarra Park (Melbourne Cricket Club) official websiteSports Precinct - Tourism Victoria website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Melbourne Sports And Entertainment Precinct Venues of the 1956 Summer Olympics Tourist attractions in Melbourne Olympic Parks Sports venues in Melbourne Olympic cycling venues Olympic field hockey venues Sports complexes in Australia