Eddie McGuire calls for retractable roof on MCG after Round 1 turf woes

Eddie McGuire has revealed a bold plan to fix the MCG while hitting back at comments from Geelong coach Chris Scott.

Geelong coach Chris Scott, left, and former Collingwood president Eddie McGuire, right

Former Collingwood president Eddie McGuire thinks he’s got the solution to the MCG’s turf woes after an opening round where players were slipping and sliding everywhere.

The MCG turf was under the spotlight with after Ed Sheeran packed out the venue for two concerts in early March, with over 210,000 people trampling across the hallowed turf.

The MCG ground staff scrambled to prepare the surface for the season opener 14 days later, laying down 10,000 square metres of turf in what was the biggest turf replacement job since 2014, according to MCG facilities manager Peter Wearne.

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It wasn’t enough, however, with players openly critical of the surface.

Geelong captain Patrick Dangerfield said it “wasn’t like a normal deck”, while star Carlton defender Sam Docherty was openly apprehensive of playing on it, having had two ACL injuries.

Geelong coach Chris Scott slammed the surface as “inconsistent” after his side’s Round 1 loss to Collingwood. (Photo by Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images)

The AFL Players’ Association said that feedback from round one on the surface was “varied”, with inconsistency across the ground, with Geelong coach Chris Scott calling the surface preparation an “own goal”.

According to Eddie McGuire, it wasn’t so much the crowds themselves as the rain that followed that slowed the recovery process of the turf, and he has a solution.

“It wasn’t so much the crowd at Ed Sheeran; it was the fact that it rained after the crowd left a couple of days later,” he said on Nine’s Eddie and Jimmy podcast with Jimmy Bartel.

Co-host Bartel asked what the alternative was to hosting concerts on a sporting surface, given the commercial considerations.

Eddie McGuire has a bold idea for the MCG. (Photo by Darrian Traynor/Getty Images)

“They’ve got to make money, it’s a stadium, it’s an all-year round stadium, it’s there for cricket, it’s there for other sports,” McGuire responded.

“What else are they supposed to do?”

McGuire, as always, had a solution at hand.

“Put a roof on it,” he said.

“That’s what they need to do. It’s as simple as that.

“The next phase of the MCG is the rebuild of the Southern Stand, and one of the things I’m very, very, very keen on is having a retractable roof on the MCG, or a sliding roof.”

McGuire said that a roof was critical to being able to maintain contractual arrangements for the Ground’s marquee events.

“We got through the (Women’s T20) World Cup final of 2020 by about two hours before the rain came through,” he said.

10,000 square metres of the MCG turf were replaced ahead of AFL round 1. Picture: David Caird

“You can’t get the big money now out of the TV stations, for the cricket, for example, if (Seven boss) Lewis Martin is sticking his finger out the window on Christmas night to see if he’s going to get the Boxing Day Test away.

“You’re not going to get people sitting there for eight hours in the sunshine.

“The players in 10 years’ time won’t want to play at that time of the game.

“And similarly to the football, we don’t want to have the situation where it’s the middle of July and the rain’s coming in sideways and you can’t go to the footy.

“It’s pretty simple; all around the world they’re putting rooves on these things – and that’s the answer.

“You don’t get Ed Sheeran, you don’t get Billy Joel to do a one-off concert unless it’s at the MCG, where they can get 108,000 in there.

Ed Sheeran performs for 108,000 people at the MCG in Melbourne. Picture: Zak Walters

“Once upon a time we played footy, and we had cricket. Now it’s a multipurpose stadium, so we have to build the stadium to be a multipurpose stadium. Simple as that.”

Despite not being president of the Collingwood Football Club anymore, McGuire remains one of Victoria’s biggest and most influential figures, and has made strong statements recently about the influence that the Collingwood Football Club has on MCG operations.

In February, McGuire teed off over proposals from rival clubs to renege on the longstanding agreement that gave Collingwood members rights to the Ponsford Stand for both Home And Away games.

“I’d remind the MCC and the AFL who built the MCG and who financed it and the deals that were done and why they were done,” he said at the time.

“They should never underestimate the Collingwood members and what they have done for this game.

“They built that ground, the Southern Stand and the Northern Stand.”

Originally published as Eddie McGuire calls for retractable roof on MCG after Round 1 turf woes