MCG tracking to top 4 millions fans again as CEO Stuart Fox forecasts rebuild schedule
More people are heading to the MCG than ever before. MCC CEO Stuart Fox talks to SHANNON GILL about the pandemic bounce back, a changed strategy due to the Taylor Swift effect and when the Shane Warne Stand will be rebuilt.
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MCC chief executive Stuart Fox remembers the hollowness and the questions of having an empty stadium for the best part of two pandemic years.
Would we ever feel comfortable in a big crowd again?
Or would we even want to, now that we’ve discovered the joys of streaming everything we want, when we want, to our lounge rooms?
“There was a lot of doom and gloom then about people not turning up to games and content,” Fox says.
“But I feel like they’ve been starved. Events are back in a very big way.”
With some of the healthiest crowd figures we’ve ever seen kicking off the 2024 year, Fox is able to look to the future with confidence as he speaks to CODE Sports about crowd growth, a changed strategy on events and how the fans are making a compelling argument for a redeveloped Shane Warne Stand sooner rather than later.
Utopia repeating?
2023 might be looked back on as the time Melbourne, the city, finally shook off its Covid hangover.
4.2 million people came through the MCG gates for sports and events, AFL games averaged around the 60,000 mark (up from 52,000) and five finals attracted more than 90,000 each.
Ed Sheeran concerts and the Bledisloe Cup added further diversity to the spectator mix.
“It almost felt like utopia for us,” Fox says.
“And I pondered at the start of this season, ‘Will utopia happen again?’”
So far, it’s looking even better.
Last weekend’s Anzac Day extravaganza was the highest attended home-and-away footy weekend in the ground’s history with 292,311 pouring in.
“I don’t know whether I can answer that utopia question at this point in time, but signs indicate that things are pretty positive.”
So positive that the MCG might be chasing a world crown.
According to the MCC’s research, last year’s 4.2 million attendees had the ’G ranked third in the world among stadiums for total attendance.
With NRL State-of-Origin and a Tottenham Hotspur versus Newcastle United match to come alongside another bumper footy season, it could be on track to move up those world rankings.
“We would dearly love to be the highest attended stadium in the world but our competitors overseas are often dealing with 168 baseball games a year,” Fox says.
“Our goal is to be the highest-attended stadium in Australia and we’d love to do it on a global scale, too.”
One of the reasons that number looks like exceeding last year’s is a woman called Taylor.
The Taylor effect
“I didn’t quite get Taylor Swift beforehand,” Fox says.
“But I certainly get her now!”
There’s 288,000 reasons why. That many fans attended the three Swift concerts in total and Fox thinks “she probably could have filled it seven or eight times”.
Back in the early 1990s the MCG was a regular music venue; U2, Madonna, Paul McCartney and the Rolling Stones all graced the arena, but it had been sporadic since.
“I don’t think the MCG was considered one of the better venues because they couldn’t provide a solution to the sound bouncing around,” Fox says.
“But in recent years, the promoters have been able to find a solution to that and the proof’s been in the pudding.”
Technology has allowed Fox’s team to bring music back as a key pillar of the stadium. The MCG now strategically chases music events around its football and cricket commitments.
“We have made a deliberate attempt to try to attract two big music events a year. Given we don’t have a roof we really shoot for something in October/November and something for February.
“We shoot for artists who we believe can fill the place and hopefully fill it on multiple occasions.”
Fox expects there to be announcements soon about some major concert dates for October, but is not giving any hints at targets.
“I think Taylor Swift ruined it for me because I’ve put her back on my wish list every year!”
A new wave of members
One of the forgotten reasons behind the increasing numbers at the MCG has been the controversial move to add a “provisional membership” category in 2015.
In basic terms it gave part of the more than 200,000 people on the waiting list a taste of membership much earlier, without the full privileges of those on full or restricted memberships.
2023 figures total 63,709 full members, 43,339 restricted members, and now 50,660 provisional members who are given access to selected “non-blockbuster” days.
“Our average attendance has increased in recent years due to that new membership category,” Fox says.
“Most weeks, if you’re looking at the MCC reserve, certainly blockbusters are full, but even the mid-tier games are performing exceptionally well relative to the rest of the ground.”
50,000 more people can call themselves members and in turn they’re using the ground more.
Rebuilding ‘Warney’
More bums on seats makes life easier when it comes to the future of the MCG, specifically the redevelopment of the 32-year-old Shane Warne (formerly Southern) Stand. Of course bigger crowds boost the bank balance, but in Fox’s mind increased attendance at a range of events also help give the state government a mandate for building that is proving problematic in Queensland and Tasmania.
“It becomes an even more compelling argument when you host three Taylor Swift concerts in a row and you look at the economic impact,” Fox says.
“More events, bigger events, big crowds … I think assists us with mounting a case to make sure the Shane Warne Stand gets the rebuild it will require at some point in time.”
Fox’s team has been through early stages of planning with the Victorian Government, and will go into more detail on those over the next few years.
“The goal is hopefully looking to move into a major building project sometime in 2029-30.”
Feasibility studies on cost, funding and impact will determine how realistic that is. But unlike the last complete knockdown of the Southern Stand through 1991, the MCC intends to keep all its major events at the ground through any rebuild.
In seeking that commitment, Fox is grateful for both the geographical and emotional place the MCG holds for a vast majority of Melburnians unlike those building debates in other states.
“I watch all the stadium issues with great interest, and I want to see every state doing well,” he says.
“I’ve always believed all states need a good stadium to provide sport and entertainment in. The MCG is just so fortunate that it’s right on the fringe of the city, you can walk from the city to the ground.”
“It’s just incredible when you go overseas and look at stadiums. I do think we have one of the best precincts in the sporting world, so that’s something we can be proud of.”
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