MCG Tour and Australian Sports Museum

The Melbourne Cricket Ground is the most important sporting venue in Australia and one of the largest stadiums in the world, holding around 100,000 people. Founded in 1853, it has hosted Test cricket since the very first Test match in 1877, the 1956 Olympic Games, the 2006 Commonwealth Games and, every September, the AFL Grand Final, the biggest day on Melbourne's calendar. Locals simply call it the G. The MCG Tour lets you see the ground from the inside on a non-event day: guides take you through the members' reserve and its long room, the historic MCC library, the players' change rooms, and down the race to the edge of the arena, where you can stand on the boundary and look up at the enormous stands. Tours run every day, departing every half hour from 10am to 3pm, though they do not operate on Good Friday, Melbourne Cup Day or Christmas Day, and event days can change the schedule. The Australian Sports Museum, also inside the ground, is the companion visit: it covers Australian rules football, cricket, the Olympics and many other sports, with memorabilia, interactive games where you can test your kicking or batting skills, and halls of fame for the country's great athletes. A combined ticket for the tour and the museum is the best value, at around fifty Australian dollars for adults with discounts for children and families. Even if you are not a sports fan, the tour explains why Melbourne thinks of itself as the sporting capital of the world. If you are a fan, plan to see a game: an AFL match in winter or cricket in summer is the most Melbourne night out there is.

The best way to understand the MCG is to see it both empty and full. On the tour, the scale is the striking thing: the stands rise around you in tiers, the surface is immaculate, and the guides fill the space with stories of famous matches, players and records. The members' reserve, with its long room and dress codes, gives you a sense of the club culture that runs the ground; the Melbourne Cricket Club has managed it since the nineteenth century. Tours start from Gate 3 and run for about an hour, though the route can vary with events and maintenance. Book online in advance during the school holidays and around big matches.

Then come back for a game. The AFL season runs from March to September, with matches at the MCG most weekends, and attending one is the quickest way to understand Melbourne. Tickets for ordinary home-and-away games are easy to buy and affordable; the atmosphere is friendly, families are everywhere and the noise when a goal is kicked is enormous. In summer the ground switches to cricket, headlined by the Boxing Day Test, which starts on 26 December each year and draws huge crowds. The AFL Grand Final in late September is the hottest ticket of the year and mostly goes to club members.

Getting there is simple. The MCG sits in Yarra Park, about fifteen minutes' walk east of the city centre through the Fitzroy Gardens or along the river from Federation Square via Birrarung Marr. Richmond and Jolimont stations are close by, and trams run along Wellington Parade and Flinders Street. On match days the trains and trams are busy but efficient. Melbourne Park, home of the Australian Open tennis, is next door, so combine the two if you are visiting during the summer of sport.