Stadium Capacity
The total capacity of the MCG is approximately 100,000.
This comprises 95,000 seats and 5000 standing room spaces, which are sold at the discretion of the event promoter.
The realistic capacity for most events is 98,000 as often not all standing room tickets are placed on sale.
Arena Dimensions
The MCG arena has a total of approximately 20,290 square metres in area and measures 174 x 149 metres in length, from fence to fence.
The volume of the MCG is 1,700,000 cubic metres, or 1.7 million cubic metres.
The goal posts for AFL matches are 11 metres in height (10.25m above ground) and the length of the cricket pitch is 22 yards, which in metric terms is 20.12 metres.
Other AFL-specific measurements are:
- Centre Square - four lines are each 45 metres in length.
- Goal square width is 6.4m.
- Goal square length is 9m.
The ground holds 96 sprinklers and the fall of the ground is 1%. The grass is a mixture of couch and rye grass.
Arena Management
Every year 3000m2 of the centre corridor is re-laid.
The arena is seeded twice a year at 35 grams/m2 which is equivalent to 1.4 tonnes.
Approximately 350 man-hours are spent per week maintaining the turf, which includes: Rolling, cutting, repairing, installing irrigation, match preparation, re-sodding, water and maintenance & planning and scheduling.
Irrigation
Any watering of the MCG turf will comply with the current guidelines for Stage 3 Water Restrictions as detailed in the relevant water authorities’ Drought Response Plan’.
The grass is cut daily in summer and twice a week in the winter. It is cut at a length of 12mm during the summer and 25mm during the winter.
Sirens
The MCG sirens comprise of eight banks of four horns each strategically located around the ground. Their locations are:
Northern Stand
The siren banks are mounted in four positions on the lighting gantry at Bays 33, 38, 45 and 51.
Great Southern Stand
The siren banks are mounted in four positions on the lighting gantry at Bays 2, 8, 15 & 23
The siren controls are located in the Press Writers room on Level 3 of the Olympic Stand and are operated by pressing two red buttons simultaneously. In the advent of a power failure, there is a UPS system in place to guard against this occurrence.
The sirens undergo a maintenance service and inspection twice yearly, before the AFL home and away season commences and again prior to the AFL finals.
The sound levels are measured at locations adjacent to all sets of horns, centre of the ground and at centre half back and centre half forward.
The readings average between 88 and 90Dba. On a weekly basis, the sirens are checked for correct operation and sound levels.
Each of the eight banks of sirens is made up of four horns, of which each bank comprises two medium note 320Hz and two high note 450Hz horns.
Access Control / Turnstiles
Attendance figures are governed by the bar code scanning turnstiles and other devices at all entry points around the ground.
Depending on the entry point, attendance figures are broken up into various categories, which are used for statistical information and future reference.
The categories include MCC members, MCC members’ visitors, AFL members, AFL members’ guests, Corporate, (suites and dining rooms), officials, media, Home Club members, Away Club members, Reserved seating and General Admission.
The access control software registers each patron entering the ground as their ticket is scanned and calculates the actual attendance figure.
The official attendance figure is then relayed to the scoreboard control room to post onto the scoreboards and is usually done at about the 15-minute mark of the last quarter during football or the last hour of other events.
Vision boards / Scoreboards
The MCG has two electronic video screen vision boards, located on Level 4 at either end of the new northern stand.
The western end vision board was re-installed in April, 2004 as part of the MCG redevelopment. It had initially been removed in October, 2002 when the Ponsford Stand was demolished.
A second vision board - a Sony JumboTron - had existed in the Olympic Stand since September 1994, but was removed and sold prior to the demolition of the Olympic Stand in October, 2004.
A new state-of-the-art Mitsubishi screen at the eastern end was installed in late-2005.
The western end of the ground has seen three electronic video scoreboards installed in its history. The first was a Mitsubishi Diamond Vision screen installed during March 1982. It incorporated a full colour video screen for instant replay and its dimensions were 10.85 metres wide x 7.235 metres high.
This was upgraded in December 1992 with another Mitsubishi Diamond Vision Screen that had 43% more display area and had the dimensions of 17.36 metres wide x 6.4 metres high. The screen was five times brighter than the previous board and cost $7.3 million to install.
Just prior to the start of an AFL match between Richmond and Carlton on 27 August 1999, this scoreboard caught fire. No injuries occurred to patrons and the fire was put out very quickly but severe damage was caused to part of the scoreboard.
The scoreboard was made safe and operational by the next week, albeit with less display area and then replaced by a new LED Mitsubishi Diamond Vision screen in February 2000 which has the same dimensions as the second screen.
The LED screen consumes only half the power as the original two screens, has five times the life span, is ready for high definition TV and is lighter in structure making it easier during construction.
A control room, run by Stadia Media, on Level 3 of the Olympic Stand operates the vision boards. There are 10-12 people on an event day working in that area to ensure replays, statistics and pre game entertainment runs smoothly.
Security & Surveillance Cameras
There are a number of security and surveillance cameras around the venue. These are used for protection of property and assets and for the purposes of crowd control on event days.
On an event day the surveillance cameras are controlled by the Police in the upper levels of the Olympic Stand and are used to detect inappropriate behaviour in the crowd.
Security at the MCG has control of various surveillance cameras that are used primarily for the protection of the property and many assets the ground has displayed.
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