Melbourne has it all over Sydney when it comes to stadiums, writes Richard Hinds

BY Sydney’s modest standards, Melbourne needs another major sports stadium like Maria Sharapova now needs a new tennis racquet, writes Richard Hinds.

BY Sydney’s modest standards, Melbourne needs another major sports stadium like Maria Sharapova now needs a new tennis racquet.

The MCG is vast, grand and about to undergo further refurbishment. Etihad Stadium is modern, central and has a weather-proof lid. Boutique AAMI Park provides an intimate theatre for what the locals call “the rectangular codes’’.

Melburnians boast the Olympic Park precinct where the MCG and AAMI Park intersect with Rod Laver Arena, and Collingwood Football Club’s lavish training facility is the best in the world.

A view of Melbourne’s sports precinct, with the MCG in the foreground and AAMI Park in the background.

So what should we think when Eddie McGuire says the Victorian Government should tear down 16 year-old Etihad Stadium, sell the valuable city site and wedge a 60,000 capacity stadium between the MCG and AAMI Stadium?

Those Sydney natives who remember McGuire’s unseemly stoushes with the Swans will be tempted to think the Mouth from the South has stuck his Gucci loafers in his gob again.

But – and it is not often anyone north of the Murray feels compelled to bow to the wisdom of the omnipresent Collingwood president, game show host and AFL commentator - McGuire is in this case a visionary. At least by the doleful standards of Sydney’s uninspired and gridlocked stadium debate.

There are good reasons why McGuire’s proposed stadium might never host a game – most obviously the potential objection of Tennis Australia which runs the Australian Open. ‘’Victoria Stadium’’ would be built on the current site of Hisense Arena, the Open’s third biggest court.

But as attempts to have the NSW Government bring Sydney’s sporting stadiums into the 21st century reach stalemate due to political bickering and the myopia of local sports clubs, McGuire’s plan demonstrates why Melbourne’ venues are light-years ahead.

Where Melbourne creates wonderful arenas, Sydney clubs squabble about the petty inconvenience of having to abandon their current homes for a few years to build stadiums that, if done properly, would last for decades and vastly improve financial returns.

An artist’s impression of Eddie McGuire’s proposed Victoria Stadium.

So far only the patently obvious decision to replace Parramatta Stadium has been rubber-stamped. But there remains a threat that the next two stages of Sydney’s modest (by global standards) $1 billion sports stadia investment will entail uneasy compromises rather than grand visions.

Instead of tearing down dilapidated Allianz Stadium and building a world class venue in Moore Park that could attract new fans, the Baird Government is threatening a relatively modest makeover. The NSW government believes it can make ANZ Stadium, now only popular for major events, a beloved week-to-week home for various NRL clubs. This seems the product of wishful thinking than real conviction.

Meanwhile, Melbourne stadium-building willpower has been demonstrated in our own backyard by the way the AFL has sucked funding from the federal, state and local government to build stadiums under the NRL’s nose.

Having ANZ Stadium configured for AFL games, the costly renovation of the SCG, Blacktown Olympic Park and – the coup de grace – having an AFL stadium built that was small enough for the Greater Western Sydney Giants in the shadows of ANZ Stadium, were lobbying masterstrokes.

The NRL? For years they have been satisfied to put another lick of paint on antiquated suburban venues where diehards can reminisce about past glories, but where the game’s growth stagnates.

The reflexive nay-saying of those who consider the cost of stadiums is that the money is better spent on public transport or hospitals. Yet the Melburnians blessed with brilliant sports arenas seem to get them on trains and have their maladies treated as promptly – or otherwise - as Sydneysiders.

McGuire’s plan embodies Melbourne’s passion for sport and willingness to invest in it. When it comes to stadiums, Sydney needs to phone a friend.