Melbourne Rectangular Stadium

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article or section is about a planned or proposed stadium.
It may contain information of a speculative nature and the content may change dramatically as the construction and/or completion of the stadium approaches.

Melbourne Rectangular Stadium
The Bubbledome
An artists impression of the stadium
Location	Olympic Boulevard, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Coordinates	37°49′29″S 144°59′02″E / -37.8248, 144.984
Broke ground	2007
Opened	December 22, 2009
Owner	Government of Victoria
Operator	Melbourne & Olympic Parks Trust
Surface	Grass
Construction cost	AU$268 million
Architect	Cox Architects and Planners
Tenants	Melbourne Victory FC (A-League) (from 2009; shared with Telstra Dome) Melbourne Storm (NRL) (from 2010)
Capacity	31,500
Field dimensions	100 x 70 m

The Melbourne Rectangular Stadium is a planned outdoor sports stadium to be located on Olympic Boulevard in inner Melbourne, Australia. It is intended to play host to Melbourne Storm (NRL) and Melbourne Victory (A-League) home games, and to fill in the gap in the city's sporting infrastructure for a state of the art, purpose built rectangular stadium. It will feature a distinctive "Bioframe" design, with a geodesic dome roof covering much of the seating area, whilst still allowing light through to the pitch.

[edit] Capacity

The stadium was initially proposed to have seating capacity of 20,000, upgradeable to 25,000. This was due to both expected demand, as well as a state government agreement with Telstra Dome that no stadiums with a capacity greater than 30,000 would be constructed in Melbourne before 2010. These plans were revised after the Melbourne Victory refused to commit to playing at a stadium of such small capacity, having achieved an average attendance of over 27,000 since their move to the Telstra Dome in the 06/07 A-League Season. Under the new plans put forward by the Victorian Government, a capacity of 31,500 was proposed, on the condition that the Victory sign on as a tenant. An agreement has since been reached between the two parties for the stadium to have a capacity of 31,000.^[1] To assist with the extended capacity, temporary stands will be erected behind the goals during football games and removed during rugby league games so as to allow space for the try line. The stadium will also be built with foundations to allow for future expansion to 50,000.^[2]

The stadium will also be used by the Melbourne Demons as administration headquarters. The team had wanted the stadium completed by 2008 to coincide with its 150th anniversary.