Docklands Stadium

Docklands Stadium, known by various sponsor names including Colonial Stadium, Telstra Dome, Etihad Stadium and Marvel Stadium, is a purpose built inner city sporting stadium built primarily for football and opening in 2000 taking the place of Waverley Park as Melbourne's second major football venue. Docklands is smaller than Waverley Park in capacity (56,347) but is much better served by public transport being only a short walk from Southern Cross (formerly Spencer Street) Railway Station, Melbourne's main regional rail terminal. Over the years it has hosted rock concerts, cricket, soccer, rugby league, professional wrestling, mixed martial arts, basketball and even darts.
==Construction and early use==
The stadium was first planned and announced in October 1996, publicly stated as the replacement for Waverley. The original ownership was shared by a consortium and Channel Seven who built their new Melbourne studio on the land. The Australian Football League also took up offices there. Part of the leasehold was later bought by a fund manager in 2006. Ultimately the AFL were originally going to take full control of the venue in 2025 as part of the terms of the construction. However this was brought forward to 2016.
The first event at the venue was the opening round of the 2000 AFL season when Essendon hosted Port Adelaide. The first goal was kicked by Essendon's Michael Long and the Bombers won the game by 94 points. The second game from the opening round was St Kilda hosting Sydney with the visitors winning by 34 points. The naming rights sponsor in the first season was Colonial Mutual.
There were soon issues with the surface with clumps of grass and the sand underneath coming out too easily. This led to complaints of instability and injury concerns. The venue needed high maintenance due to the retractable roof restricting natural sunlight at the northern end of the venue. Ongoing trial and error to resolve the issues have persisted since.
==Finals matches==
Docklands Stadium hosted it's first final in 2000 with Hawthorn defeating Geelong with an attendance of 44,709. Consequent finals were hosted in 2001, 2002, 2005 and 2007 and the last final was played there in 2011 before all Victorian AFL finals were designated exclusively to the MCG. The VFL Grand Final was played at Docklands from 2008 to 2018.
==Sponsorship history==
The naming rights sponsor was originally Colonial Mutual. This lasted until the end of the 2001 AFL season, when the Commonwealth Bank - who had bought out Colonial Mutual - sold the rights to Telstra. From 2002 the venue was known as the Telstra Dome. Some clubs who had deals with rival providers referred to it as The Dome (Essendon for awhile were sponsored by 3 who longer do business in Australia, and Carlton by Optus). In early 2009 Telstra sold the rights to Etihad and the name was changed to Etihad Stadium. The AFL was not happy with this as it clashed with one of their sponsors, Qantas, but a deal was struck to get around it. Finally, the latest change to date took place place years after the AFL gained control of the venue in 2018 - with the Walt Disney Company gaining the rights and calling the venue Marvel Stadium from September of that year.
==Other uses==
Other sport has also been played at Docklands stadium. BBL team the Melbourne Renegades play their home games here and there has been the odd international - mostly in 2006 when the MCG was unavailable due to the Commonwealth Games. Both rugby league and rugby union have been played there as well as soccer. At various times before the opening of the Melbourne Rectangular Stadium, NRL team the Melbourne Storm and A League team the Melbourne Victory played it's home games there. International basketball has also been played there, and the venue hosted the 2015 Speedway Grand Prix. It also hosted UFC 193 in 2015 and a professional darts event the same year that was marred by poor crowd behaviour.
WWE presented Global Warning in 2002 at Docklands Stadium while concerts featuring AC/DC (who hold the record for the single largest crowd in venue history at 100,000), Coldplay, Ed Sheeran, Adele, U2, Robbie Williams, Bon Jovi, Barbra Streisand (who had the very first concert there), Taylor Swift, Eminem, One Direction, Foo Fighters, Justin Beiber, Usher, George Michael, Mariah Carey, Pearl Jam, Justin Timberlake, André Rieu, Kiss, Janet Jackson, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Armin van Buuren, Green Day and Bruce Springsteen. The venue has also hosted the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo.
Category:Venues