stands. For all its amenities as a stadium, Etihad was designed for AFL and a rugby league or football match there loses atmosphere because the action is so far removed from the crowd.
Melbourne Victory has traditionally had the most vocal fans in the A-League and among the banging and clattering of construction as you walk through the stadium, you can hear how the noise will travel and then envelop the place, making it a cauldron. The PR tells you that the stadium will bring people to it regardless of what sport is being played. That is a big claim, but there is no doubt that fans of both the Storm and the Victory will prefer the atmosphere here to that at Etihad with a similar 20,000 plus crowd.
The critics say it wasn't made big enough and that the growth of the round ball code in particular will see the stadium quickly become an anachronism. However, crowds at Melbourne Victory matches this season have only exceeded 30,000 on one occasion and 20,000 on one other occasion.
The Storm have not looked like out-growing Olympic Park, which has a capacity of 18,000 and have only moved a handful of games, mainly finals, over the years because of an expected crowd over capacity.
The problem is that Melburnians have been blessed with mega stadiums. When Etihad, with a capacity of 55,000, is considered boutique because it pales in comparison to the MCG, then you know you've got it good.
But both of these were never football or rugby grounds and the fact they are ovals enables more opportunity to increase capacity. If those critics wanted to add more capacity to this ground, then they would have to sacrifice the intimacy.
Beyond the ability to attract people to games, the clubs will also derive a massive benefit from having a home base with state of the art facilities which enables the club's entire staff to work at the same complex. Victory's football department and administration management have worked in separate suburbs of recent times and it will be a great advantage when they are able to work together.
The building of this fabulous new ground adds further weight to Melbourne's claim of being the sporting capital of the world. There would be few, if any, cities of the world who could boast three multi-purpose stadiums of such quality within a 2km radius of the city. Importantly, the newest addition does not look to replicate the greatness of the others, but complement it.