Melbourne Cricket Club

About the Melbourne Cricket Club

The Melbourne Cricket Club has by far the biggest membership of any sporting club in Australia.
Founded in 1838 and assuming occupancy of the Melbourne Cricket Ground's present site (its fourth) in 1853, the MCC has approximately 92,000 members and currently there are between 10,000 and 15,000 people nominated for membership each year.
There are around 158,000 people on the waiting list.

The club always has been the foremost promoter of sport in Australia. In 1859 the MCC drew up the first set of rules for Victorian (later Australian) football. It hosted the first tour by an English cricket team in 1862, the first Test match in 1877 and the first one-day international match in 1971.

An exhibition baseball match was played at the ground between two American teams in 1888, the club laid the country's first asphalt tennis courts in 1879 and bowling greens were established at the MCG in 1894.

Along with the playing of cricket, today's MCC is an umbrella organisation for hundreds of participants in eight sporting sections - golf, lacrosse, baseball, tennis, lawn bowls, shooting, hockey and squash.

The club's principal public role, however, remains the progressive management and development of one of the country's greatest assets - the Melbourne Cricket Ground - a stadium which shares a unique relationship with its local community and boasts a rare magnetism in attracting visitors from all corners of the globe.

Management of the ground is vested in the MCC by the government-appointed MCG Trust and an Act of Parliament guarantees the club's occupation of about 20 per cent of the stadium for its Members Reserve.

The keenness of Melburnians to belong to their cricket club and retain membership, usually for life, has been a major factor in enabling the club to develop the stadium, until the early nineties, almost exclusively through the use of members' funds.

It is significant that most big building projects over the years have been accompanied by an influx of new members, whose joining fees and subscriptions helped underwrite the cost of such initiatives.

MCC Mission Statement

The Melbourne Cricket Club is a private club with public responsibilities. It has two primary roles
- managing the MCG as the world's best stadium for all people.
- providing the best services and facilities to its members.
whilst ensuring our unique sporting culture and heritage are enhanced and appreciated.

About Melbourne Cricket Ground

The Melbourne Cricket Ground is one of Australia's greatest assets. It is the biggest stadium in Australia with a capacity of just under 100,000. The MCG is an extremely busy venue accommodating International Cricket, Australian Rules Football, Rugby League & Union, Soccer, as well as Concerts, Dinners and other major functions on its natural turf arena. The MCG is currently undergoing a multi-million dollar redevelopment which include re-building about 55% of the ground. For more details, click on 'Redevelopment Information' in the right-hand menu.               The MCG is very heavily utilized. There are more than 90 days of cricket and football each year and attendances exceed 3.5 million people annually. The Melbourne Cricket Club manages the stadium and has progressively expanded the MCG's role as both an entertainment centre and a world-class tourist destination. Today it sits proudly alongside other internationally recognized attractions as a venue uniquely symbolic of Melbourne, Victoria and Australia generally. The advent of the Great Southern Stand in 1991-92 set many benchmarks for the construction of sporting stadiums in Australia. This marvellous structure, accommodating 44,500 people and covering 45 per cent of the stadium's perimeter, brought state-of-the-art comfort, convenience and hospitality facilities to all levels of Melbourne's sporting society. The $150 million showpiece incorporates many of the world's most advanced design features and contains provisions for disabled people which are second-to-none. A most comprehensive disaster plan is in place, with crowd alert and evacuation procedures clearly documented. Staff refresher courses are conducted regularly. The Great Southern Stand spawned an era of advanced event management techniques which have been applied to all other areas of the stadium, so that systems in older facilities have been brought into line with modern practice. The MCG always has been a focal point of activity for Melburnians. If there was an important event in the city the odds were that the cricket ground would play host. There have been several royal pageants and religious conventions held at the ground. State-of-Origin rugby league and international rugby union and soccer matches have been played before big crowds at the stadium, and visiting teams of baseballers and lacrosse players first demonstrated their skills on the MCG. The country's first major cycling event; the Austral Wheel Race, was held there and experimental aeroplane flights used the arena as a runway, not always successfully. School sports were staged at the MCG and the entire stadium was transformed to host the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne. One way or another, the green sward has been extremely busy. It is used one day in four and is subject to year-round wear and tear unlike any other natural turf surface in the world. During the redevelopment, the ground's capacity will vary between 70,000 and 80,000. Once complete, the stadium will have seating for over 100,000 people.