Editing Melbourne Cricket Ground (section)

==Stadium development==
[[File:MCG grandstand.jpg|thumb|left|Grandstand built for the [[England cricket team|English cricket team]]'s [[English cricket team in Australia and New Zealand in 1876–77|1877 visit]]]]
The first grandstand at the MCG was the original wooden members' stand built in 1854, while the first public grandstand was a 200-metre long 6000-seat temporary structure built in 1861. Another grandstand seating 2000, facing one way to the cricket ground and the other way to the park where football was played, was built in 1876 for the [[English cricket team in Australia and New Zealand in 1876–77|1877 visit]] of [[James Lillywhite]]'s English cricket team. It was during this tour that the MCG hosted the world's first [[Test cricket|Test]] match.

In 1881, the original members' stand was sold to the Richmond Cricket Club for £55. A new brick stand, considered at the time to be the world's finest cricket facility, was built in its place. The foundation stone was laid by [[George V|Prince George of Wales]] and [[Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale|Prince Albert Victor]] on 4 July and the stand opened in December that year. It was also in 1881 that a telephone was installed at the ground, and the wickets and goal posts were changed from an east–west orientation to north–south. In 1882 a scoreboard was built which showed details of the batsman's name and how he was dismissed.

When the Lillywhite tour stand burned down in 1884 it was replaced by a new stand which seated 450 members and 4500 public. In 1897, second-storey wings were added to 'The Grandstand', as it was known, increasing capacity to 9,000. In 1900 it was lit with electric light.

[[File:MCG 1914.jpg|thumb|MCG, {{circa|1914}}. The 1881 members' stand is the smaller building on the left]]
More stands were built in the early 20th century. An open wooden stand was on the south side of the ground in 1904 and the 2084-seat Grey Smith Stand (known as the New Stand until 1912) was erected for members in 1906. The 4000-seat Harrison Stand on the ground's southern side was built in 1908 followed by the 8000-seat Wardill Stand in 1912. In the 15 years after 1897 the grandstand capacity at the ground increased to nearly 20,000, while the full ground capacity was almost 60,000.

In 1927, the second brick members' stand was replaced at a cost of £60,000. The Harrison and Wardill Stands were demolished to make way for the Southern Stand which was opened at the end of 1936. The Southern Stand, which spanned almost half of the field's circumference, seated 18,200 under cover and 13,000 in the open and was the main public area of the MCG. The maximum capacity of the ground under this configuration, as advised by the Health Department, was 84,000 seated and 94,000 standing.<ref>{{Cite news |date=27 September 1938 |title=New stands may be needed for Melbourne Cricket Ground |work=The Argus |location=Melbourne, VIC |page=20}}</ref>

The Northern Stand, also known as the Olympic Stand, was built to replace the old Grandstand for the 1956 Olympic Games. By Health Department regulations, this was to increase the stadium's capacity to 120,000; although this was revised down after the [[1956 VFL Grand Final]], which could not comfortably accommodate its crowd of 115,802.<ref>{{Cite news |date=18 September 1956 |title=Only 102,000 will get in for Games |work=The Argus |location=Melbourne, VIC |page=5}}</ref> Ten years later, the Grey Smith Stand and the open concrete stand next to it were replaced by the Western Stand; the [[Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh|Duke of Edinburgh]] laid a foundation stone for the Western Stand on 3 March 1967, and it was completed in 1968; in 1986, it was renamed the W.H. Ponsford Stand in honour of Victorian batsman [[Bill Ponsford]]. This was the stadium's highest capacity configuration, and the all-time record crowd for a sporting event at the venue of 121,696 was set under this configuration in the [[1970 VFL Grand Final]].

The MCG was the home of Australia's first full colour video scoreboard, which replaced the old scoreboard in 1982, located on Level 4 of the Western Stand, which notably caught fire in 1999 and was replaced in 2000. A second video screen added in 1994 almost directly opposite, on Level 4 of the Olympic stand. In 1985, light towers were installed at the ground, allowing for night football and day-night cricket games.

During the 1980s, the Olympic Stand had corporate suites installed which led to the reduction of seating and standing capacity in the stand, the Ponsford Stand had seats installed on the ground level replacing the standing room and both the Southern Stand and Olympic Stand had their wooden bench seats removed and replaced with plastic bucket seats.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Grandstands |url=https://mcg.org.au/the-stadium/mcg-history/grandstands |access-date=2022-12-31 |website=mcg.org.au}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=28 May 2016 |title=History of the MCG - Peter Gee (ABC) 1987 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3ZFfDNLG2I&ab_channel=oztiger73 |access-date=2022-12-31 |website=YouTube}}</ref>

[[File:MCG99.jpg|thumb|left|View of the Great Southern Stand during the 1998 Boxing Day Test match. The Olympic Stand is visible at the bottom left of the photo.]]
In 1988, inspections of the old Southern Stand found [[Alkali–silica reaction|concrete cancer]] and provided the opportunity to replace the increasingly run-down 50-year-old facility. The projected cost of $100&nbsp;million was outside what the Melbourne Cricket Club could afford so the Victorian Football League took the opportunity to part fund the project in return for a 30-year deal to share the ground. The new Great Southern Stand was completed in 1992, in time for the [[1992 Cricket World Cup]], at a final cost of $150&nbsp;million by [[John Holland Group|John Holland]].<ref>{{Cite book |title=Up for the Challenge: The John Holland Story 1986 - 2016 |date=2018 |publisher=[[John Holland Group|John Holland]] |pages=99–102}}</ref> It was renamed the Shane Warne Stand after Victorian bowler [[Shane Warne]] in 2022 shortly after his death.<ref>[https://www.afr.com/companies/sport/mcg-stand-to-be-renamed-in-honour-of-shane-warne-20220305-p5a21e MCG stand to be named in honour of Shane Warne] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220305045038/https://www.afr.com/companies/sport/mcg-stand-to-be-renamed-in-honour-of-shane-warne-20220305-p5a21e |date=5 March 2022 }} ''[[Australian Financial Review]]'' 5 March 2022</ref>

[[File:New Ponsford Stand Construction.jpg|thumb|The W.H. Ponsford Stand undergoing reconstruction in 2003.]]
[[File:Melbourne Cricket Club Member's Reserve Dec 2022.jpg|thumb|The Members Reserve as viewed from the Shane Warne Stand during the [[Australia national cricket team|Australia]] vs [[South Africa national cricket team|South Africa]] [[Boxing Day Test]] in 2022.]]
The 1928 Members' stand, the 1956 Olympic stand and the 1968 W.H. Ponsford stand were demolished one by one between late 2003 to 2005 and replaced with a new structure in time for the [[2006 Commonwealth Games]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Products |first=Ancon Building |title=Projects |url=http://www.ancon.com.au/projects/melbourne-cricket-ground-melbourne |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141113113159/http://www.ancon.com.au/projects/melbourne-cricket-ground-melbourne |archive-date=13 November 2014 |access-date=13 November 2014}}</ref> Despite now standing as a single unbroken stand, the individual sections retain the names of W.H. Ponsford, Olympic and Members Stands. The redevelopment cost exceeded {{A$}}400&nbsp;million and pushed the ground's capacity to just above 100,000. Since redevelopment, the highest attendance has been 100,024 at the [[2022 AFL Grand Final|2022]] and [[2023 AFL Grand Final|2023]] AFL grand finals.

From 2011 until 2013, the [[Victoria State Government]] and the Melbourne Cricket Club funded a $55&nbsp;million refurbishment of the facilities in the Great Southern Stand, including renovations to entrance gates and ticket outlets, food and beverage outlets, etc., without significantly modifying the stand.<ref>[http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/john-brumby-announces-55m-facelift-for-mcgs-great-southern-stand/story-e6frf7kx-1225923753438 John Brumby announces $55m facelift for MCG's Great Southern Stand] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110615075159/http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/john-brumby-announces-55m-facelift-for-mcgs-great-southern-stand/story-e6frf7kx-1225923753438 |date=15 June 2011 }} ''Herald Sun'' 15 September 2010</ref> New scoreboards, more than twice the size of the original ones, were installed in the same positions in late 2013.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Melbourne Cricket Ground - Largest scoreboards at an Australian stadium unveiled at MCG |url=http://www.mcg.org.au/News/News/2013/December/MCG_Scoreboards_Unveiled.aspx |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140714153332/https://www.mcg.org.au/News/News/2013/December/MCG_Scoreboards_Unveiled.aspx |archive-date=14 July 2014 |access-date=2014-07-10}}</ref>

From November 2019 until February 2020 all the playing field lights, including those in the light towers, were replaced with LED sports lighting with the lighting under the roof and in two of the light towers completed in time for the [[New Zealand cricket team in Australia in 2019–20#2nd Test|Boxing Day Test]] against [[New Zealand national cricket team|New Zealand]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Shining Light: MCG Light Towers Set For LED Upgrade |url=https://www.mcg.org.au/whats-on/latest-news/2019/december/shining-light---mcg-light-towers-set-for-led-upgrade |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200207113922/https://www.mcg.org.au/whats-on/latest-news/2019/december/shining-light---mcg-light-towers-set-for-led-upgrade |archive-date=7 February 2020 |access-date=2020-02-07 |website=www.mcg.org.au |language=en}}</ref>