Eddie McGuire details his plan for changes to the MCG and surrounding precinct
Bars, restaurants and pubs should be built around the MCG as part of grand redevelopment plans, Eddie McGuire says. Have your say.
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Former Collingwood president Eddie McGuire says a roof should be added to the MCG, capacity should be increased and a new surrounding precinct should be built in a bid to add extra “wow” factor to the venue and future-proof Melbourne’s “beating heart”.
As the MCG prepares to welcome back footy fans for Round 1 of the AFL season next month, reports have emerged that the Victorian government is preparing to complete a feasibility study to decide the future of the Great Southern Stand.
The stand, which was completed in 1992, holds 45,000 of the MCG’s 100,024 seats and it is estimated that a rebuild of it would cost in excess of $1 billion.
McGuire is part of an Australian delegation that attended the NFL Super Bowl at Los Angeles’s new US$5.5 billion (AU$7.7bn) SoFi Stadium earlier this month and said that the MCG needed to continue to evolve to keep its spot as Australia’s premier sporting venue.
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“It’s got to be a knock-over, because the (Great Southern) stand itself is just structurally not the right shape for where we need to go with what we need to build at the MCG,” McGuire said.
“To be perfectly honest, we should be looking at even putting a roof on the MCG or at least a sliding roof over the top of it. The difference between the stadium and what we saw the other day (at the Super Bowl) was the unbelievable audiovisual opportunities with that screen that was right around the stadium perimeter inside hanging down.
“It’s not that long ago that we used to get excited about maybe having a video screen at your seat.
“It has to be a better experience than what you have at home and we’ve had two years to be at home.”
McGuire said technology had to be at the centre of a redevelopment, which would be unlikely to happen until after Australia hosts the 2027 Rugby World Cup.
“Before we say we should be spending money on hospitals, there are buckets of cash,” McGuire said on SEN radio.
“There are ways of doing it. One of those things is to look at the Southern Stand. At the moment it’s a stand for sport when it’s on. But if we do it properly, these can become many sorts of things.
“Let’s use this precinct and turn it into something sensational. Not just the footy game itself.”
McGuire said that in addition to a surrounding precinct being built with bars, restaurants and shops, the MCG needed to be better connected with Richmond train station and the wider Melbourne and Olympic Park precinct.
He added that any planned rebuild of the stand should consider increasing the ground’s overall capacity.
“The MCG is our beating heart of the city and the citadel of all sports,” McGuire said.
“If we’re going to continue to get big sports in, we need to have 100,000 or maybe even get up to 105,000 or 110,000.
“There is an opportunity for us to build the best stand for the general public of any facility in the world.”
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