Melbourne Victory FC - Stadium

Stadium

Further information: Olympic Park Stadium, Docklands Stadium, and Melbourne Rectangular Stadium

Melbourne were originally based at the 50 year old Olympic Park Stadium, where they played all home matches during the 2005–06 A-League season. This stadium had seated areas only on the wings, with standing-room sandy terraces on the north and south ends. The average crowd during the first year was 14,158.

On 2 September 2006, Melbourne Victory played Sydney FC at the 56,000 capacity Docklands Stadium. The match was a runaway success in terms of crowds, with 39,730 in attendance. As a result the club moved all home games to the ground, except for the Round 17 clash against the New Zealand Knights on 17 December 2006 where the match was moved to Olympic Park due to a Robbie Williams concert that was held on the same day.

This move to such a large stadium was viewed with scepticism by many, but proved to be an outstanding success, with the Grand Final held there. The average attendance rose to 27,728 for the 2006–07 season, 10,000 above the next highest in the A-League.

Prior to the 2006–07 season the club had planned to move to a new $190 million stadium being built to the east of the current Olympic Park complex. The new stadium was originally expected to sit approximately 20,000 spectators (expandable to 25,000) and was to be completed by 2009.

These plans were revised after the Victory refused to commit to playing at such a small capacity stadium. On 23 May 2007, the club announced it had signed as a founding co-tenant of the new stadium, which would now be built to accommodate a maximum of 30,050 spectators with further renovations to 50,000 possible. However, further expansion in the near-term is unlikely as it was discovered during Australia's World Cup Bid process that to build such an expansion would be prohibitively expensive.

Docklands Stadium continued to serve as the club's only home ground until the completion of AAMI Park. The club split its home games between the new stadium and Etihad Stadium from the 2010–11 A-League campaign onwards; the games of less importance or potential drawing power at the new stadium and the 'blockbusters' and finals matches at Etihad Stadium.