The Melbourne Games will feature a couple of new sports, pending ratification by the Commonwealth Games Federation in July. These are basketball and triathlon, as well as the new events mountain-bike riding and synchronised diving. At this stage the State Government's preferred position is for the Commonwealth Games village to be on a 20-hectare site in the inner suburb of Parkville, although an internal working party has considered the options of moving the site to Docklands. It is planned that 75 per cent of the athletes and officials will be housed in 434 permanent dwellings, including apartments, terrace houses and mews, that will be later sold to the public. The rest will be housed in relocatable and portable buildings.
Most sports venues are complete.
The Vodaphone Arena for cycling, athletics at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, hockey at the newly opened State Netball and Hockey centre, rugby sevens at Olympic Park and Colonial Stadium and shooting at Lilydale, Bendigo and Port Melbourne. The aquatic sports will be at the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre, possibly enlarged with an extra 50-metre pool if the State Government goes ahead with its expansion plans. The major winter tenant of the MCG, the AFL has already been consulted about its scheduling for the 2006 season, with the MCG likely to be out of action until mid-April to rip up the athletics track. The Age Company Ltd 2001. Any unauthorised use, copying or mirroring is prohibited.