Docklands Stadium
Docklands Stadium, known by naming rights sponsorship as Marvel Stadium, is a multi-purpose sports and entertainment stadium in the suburb of Docklands in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Construction started in October 1997 and was completed in 2000 at a cost of A$460 million. The stadium features a retractable roof and the ground level seating can be converted from oval to rectangular configuration.
The stadium is primarily used for Australian rules football and was originally built as a replacement for Waverley Park. Offices at the precinct serve as the headquarters of the Australian Football League which, since October 2016, has had exclusive ownership of the venue. With a capacity for over 53,000 spectators for sports, it is the second-largest stadium in Melbourne after the Melbourne Cricket Ground. It has hosted a number of other sporting events—including domestic Twenty20 cricket matches, Melbourne Victory soccer home matches, rugby league and rugby union matches, as well as special events and concerts.
History
Construction
Plans for the stadium were announced in October 1996 as a more centrally located replacement for the much larger but ageing Waverley Park as a headquarters for the Australian Football League. It was built in the Melbourne Docklands to the immediate west of the CBD, a central but largely deserted industrial area which had just begun its own urban renewal project. Construction of the stadium by Baulderstone began in October 1997 under the working name "Victoria Stadium", and was completed ahead of the 2000 AFL season. The stadium was originally developed by the Docklands Stadium Consortium and thereafter controlled by the Seven Network. The remaining leasehold interest in the stadium was sold to James Fielding Funds Management in June 2006 for A$330 million.The stadium, like Waverley Park, was built primarily for Australian rules football, unlike most grounds of a similar size in Australia which were originally designed for cricket then later developed for football. It was the first Australian rules football stadium built with a retractable roof, which throughout its history has usually been closed for night matches and for wet weather day matches; the roof closure policy for dry weather day matches has varied. It was the first stadium in Australia to have movable seating. All four level-one tiers of the stadium can be moved up to 18 metres forward into a rectangular configuration. Despite this being a key feature of the stadium design, it has rarely been used, due to damage to turf, time to deploy the seats, and a reduced capacity, since the corner bays of the stadium become unavailable in rectangular configuration.
Development
Construction was finished only weeks before the first match, and some scheduled pre-season matches were relocated as a result. The first match to be played at the ground was between and, before a crowd of 43,012, on 9 March 2000. Essendon won the match by 94 points, and Michael Long kicked the first goal at the ground. The game was to have been played under the closed roof, but due to technical issues it remained open. Six days later, Barbra Streisand staged the venue's first concert. The stadium's third football game, between Western Bulldogs and Brisbane Lions on 19 March, was the first to be played under the roof. On 16 August 2000, the world's first indoor One Day International was held at the venue between Australia and South Africa. The first game played in the rectangular configuration was a Melbourne Storm game in July 2001. The first soccer match played was in round 5 2001 of the National Soccer League between South Melbourne FC and Melbourne Knights FC.From the beginning, the stadium's playing surface was criticized for its slipperiness, hardness and lack of grass coverage, and the increased risk of injury that this causes to players. Maintaining surface quality remains one of the stadium's biggest challenges. The stadium's orientation and highly built-up grandstands mean that the Northern end of the stadium in particular receives only 6 weeks of sunlight a year. Concerts held at the stadium are also usually placed at the Southern end due to the ability for grass to recover more quickly. The entire surface undergoes regular, expensive replacement during the season with turf grown externally, under contract by HG Turf, whereas the responsibility of laying and managing the turf lies with Docklands Stadium management. Since 2007, elaborate heating and lighting to better allow grass to be grown and managed within the stadium have been in use.
The venue was damaged by a thunderstorm in March 2010 during the 2010 Victorian storms. The external roof at Gate 2 caved in, causing damage and flooding inside the entertainment area. That evening's pre-season match between and was delayed due to WorkSafe inspections, but it still went ahead before a small crowd of 5,000.
In 2015, LED electronic advertising was added around the perimeter of the ground on level 1 and 2, as well as a strip synthetic turf around the edge of the fence, outside the boundary line. The synthetic strip was narrowed after Brisbane Lions player Michael Close suffered a season ending ACL injury on the uneven surface during a game in 2015.
The stadium became unpopular with many of its tenant clubs, especially, and, as high operating costs and the high proportion of gate revenues which were paid back to the stadium meant that clubs earned much lower returns for a game at Docklands than they would have earned from the same attendance at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. At least 20,000 spectators were usually required to break even on a game. Those three clubs all received compensation payments from the AFL to balance the weak deals, and sold occasional home matches to small interstate or international venues for greater financial returns than they could earn at Docklands.
The stadium and broader precinct underwent a $225 million redevelopment, funded by the AFL and Victorian Government, between 2021 and 2024. This included two new video screens, which hang underneath the stadium's roof and were installed behind the goal at each end of the stadium ahead of the 2022 AFL season. The rest of the redevelopment upgraded stadium infrastructure, connected the precinct to the Melbourne CBD and opened up access to the Docklands waterfront. The redevelopment was completed in March 2024.
In May 2023, Docklands Stadium opened The Runner, becoming the first venue in the Southern Hemisphere to utilize Amazon’s Just Walk Out technology for checkout-free purchases. The Runner outlets, consisting of one bar and one food kiosk, work by having attendees scanning their credit or debit card, or mobile wallet payment option at the entry, entering to collect their items, and then leaving the outlet without having to wait in line to checkout. The outlets utilizes cameras, sensors, machine learning algorithms, motion tracking and artificial intelligence like computer vision and deep learning techniques, including generative AI, to accurately determine who took what in any retail environment.
Ownership
Under the terms of the agreement governing construction and operation of the venue, in 2025 the AFL was to win ownership of the stadium for a nominal $30 fee; but the AFL Commission opted to purchase exclusive ownership of the stadium earlier than this, in October 2016, for approximately $200 million. This purchase left the stadium's tenant AFL clubs millions of dollars better off, as they and the AFL arranged more favorable tenancy agreements; although clubs continue to make more money at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, leading to a push from tenant clubs, and to reduce their annual matches at the ground. The stadium was eventually integrated into the AFL structure several years later, ending the independent management of the venue by Melbourne Stadiums Limited.The purchase also soon proved critically important to the AFL's finances during the COVID-19 pandemic, when it was able to leverage its ownership of the stadium in obtaining a $500–600 million line of credit to cover cash flow shortages when the 2020 AFL season was suspended.
Naming rights history
The stadium has never operated under the name 'Docklands Stadium', having been covered by naming rights deals throughout its entire operating history. When it opened, the Colonial State Bank paid $32.5 million for 10 years of naming rights, and the stadium opened as Colonial Stadium. The same year, Commonwealth Bank took over the Colonial State Bank and began to discontinue the brand. Commonwealth then sold the balance of the naming rights contract to Telstra for about $50 million, and the stadium's name was changed to Telstra Dome in October 2002. During this time it was colloquially referred to as "The Dome" – a colloquialism used actively by clubs which were sponsored by rival telecommunications companies.In March 2009, the naming rights transferred to Etihad Airways. The venue became known as Etihad Stadium under a five-year deal, which was later extended to ten years, at a cost estimated at between $5–$8 million per year. This once again caused problems, as the AFL would not initially recognize the new name due to its deal with rival airline Qantas. The league recognized the new name only after further negotiation between the two parties.
In September 2018, the stadium was renamed Marvel Stadium after the stadium operators negotiated an eight-year deal with the Walt Disney Company, the parent company of Marvel Entertainment, to change the naming rights and install a Marvel retail store at the venue.
Stadium features
- Oval-shaped, turf playing surface of or
- Retractable roof above the playing surface, opens east–west, and takes eight minutes to fully open or close.
- Movable seating
- Two large internal video screens, one behind each goal ; and two smaller internal video screens on opposite flanks of the field – displaying scores, video replays and advertisements.
- 1,000 video seats
- 13 function rooms
- 66 corporate boxes
- Premium Club membership area, The Medallion Club
- 1700 car parking spaces across 3 levels beneath the playing surface.
- Over 700 2,000-watt lights for arena illumination
- A varying capacity of between 12,000 and 74,000, depending on the event. For example, seats can be laid on the ground.
- An AFL capacity of 53,359
- Dimensions of playing area are 159.5 metres by 128.5 metres