´óÏó´«Ã½

Is Melbourne the sporting capital of the world? I ask this question not merely to show that the ´óÏó´«Ã½â€™s Sydney correspondent is well acquainted with Australia’s second most populous city, but because it merits serious examination.

Which other city can boast a grand slam tennis event, which reaches its climax this very weekend, and a Formula One grand prix, which kicks off the 2008 season in March? The answer, of course, is that there isn’t one.

Which cities have hosted both the Olympics and the Commonwealth Games? London, Sydney, and, yes, Melbourne (although Vancouver will sneak onto that list after it hosts the 2010 Winter Olympics). The 1956 games hosted by Melbourne was the first time the Olympics had been hosted in the southern hemisphere.

There’s the , held each year on the first Tuesday of November, which is widely regarded as the planet’s most prestigious two-mile handicap, and up there with the Kentucky Derby, the Prix de L’Arc de Triomphe and the Grand National in the horse-racing pantheon.

Then there are those other great Melburnian red letter days in the sporting calendar: December 26, the start of the Boxing Day Test match, and the last Saturday in September, which is when the Australian Rules Grand Final is always played.

And here’s one for the sporting trivia buffs. Which stadium played host to the most well-attended baseball game in the sport’s history? Fenway Park? Yankee Stadium? Wrigley Field? Think again. It is the Melbourne Cricket Ground, the mighty MCG, which attracted 102,000 fans for an exhibition game during the 1956 Olympics.

In the modern-day MCG, with its colosseum-style rotunda of stands, the city has one of the most capacious cricket stadiums in the world. It can seat 95,000 spectators, with standing room for an additional 5,000.

In the Telstra Dome, a cavernous stadium in the city’s docklands big enough to stage both rugby internationals, Aussie Rules games and one-day cricket matches, it has a magnificent indoor venue which can accommodate 74,000 spectators. In all, the city boasts 29 venues that can house over 10,000 people.

Right now, the city is the home of Australia’s rugby league champions, the , as well as the domestic soccer champions, the aptly-named .

On Jolimont Street you will find the headquarters of Cricket Australia, the world’s most successful national cricket board. Melbourne also houses the headquarters of the AFL, the global hub of Australian Rules Football, a sport which the city both spawned and cradled.

Last year it hosted the World Swimming Championships. In 2006 it staged arguably the most successful and spectacular Commonwealth Games in the history of the quadrennial event.

Though some have questioned whether the millions spent staging the Melbourne Grand Prix generates a commensurate return, the city has been very smart in welcoming international sports stars, and the dollars they bring with them.

When it comes to events tourism, Sydney is deemed to have taken its eye off the ball after the 2000 Olympics. Melbourne has thundered it into the top right hand corner of the net.

One of the great charms of the capital of Victoria is that many of its sporting venues are within a javelin’s throw of Federation Square, the city’s artsy new hub. Whereas travelling to Olympic Park in Sydney sometimes feels like traversing half-way across the Nullarbor Plain, the MCG is right on the edge of the central business district. Just over the way is the Rod Laver Arena, where the final of the Australian Open will be played.

Certainly, London can boast more venerable venues, even if it does require a zones 1-6 Travelcard’ to reach them. Lords surely beats the MCG, and Wimbledon is prettier than Melbourne Park, the home of Australian tennis. For rowing regattas, the River Yarra lacks the majestic sweep of the Thames.

And now that London stages the first leg of the Tour de France and will in four years host the Olympics, it may well have the edge. But in a trans-equatorial play-off, Melbourne would surely represent the southern hemisphere (although the people of Johannesburg, Rio de Janiero and, of course, Sydney, might want to weigh in on that).

Arksports, a London-based consultancy firm which conducted a global survey in 2006, actually ranked Melbourne number one in the world for hosting a sporting event. Paris and Sydney came joint second, Berlin was fourth and London fifth. The enthusiasm of Melburnian sports fans was cited as a key reason why.

So having started with a question, I’ll end with a few more. Why this sporting fascination? Is it the city’s polyglot population? Is it savvy marketing and event planning? Or it is that other great Melbournian sport? Putting one over on Sydney.

• Bookmark with:
• del.icio.us |
• Digg |
• Newsvine |
• |
• Reddit
• - What's this?