Melbourne Cricket Ground

The Melbourne Cricket Ground is an enormous sporting ground based in inner Melbourne. It is an easy walk from the city center. The open-air stadium is one of the world's most famous cricket venues, with a massively attended Test match held there every year, starting on Boxing Day. Throughout the winter, it serves as the home of Australian rules football, with at least one game held there every week (usually more), and in late September the Grand Final fills the stadium to capacity. Up until the 1970's upwards of 120,000 people were occasionally crammed in but contemporary regulations limit the current capacity to approximately 99,000.

The "MCG", or even sometimes referred to as the "G" by Melbourne residents, was also the primary venue for the 1956 Summer Olympics, and has held other events, from international rugby, through soccer World Cup qualifiers, to rock concerts.

Current plans for the ground include the demolition of several stands, including the 1930s-era (but generally regarded as ugly) Members' stand, and the 1950s Olympic and Northern stands, to be replaced with a massive new structure in time for Melbourne to host the 2006 Commonwealth Games. The new stand will again push its capacity over the 100,000 mark.

An amusing local behaviour has emerged with regards to the Mexican wave. The patrons in the Members' Stand do not participate in the wave, so the rest of the crowd, particularly in the Southern Stand, boo the Members for refusing to participate, before the wave resumes in the Southern Stand as if no interruption had occurred. On occasions, when "the Members" have participated, they have arguably been booed more vigorously than when conforming to the expected behaviour.