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Docklands Stadium (also known by its former sponsored names of Colonial Stadium and Telstra Dome as well as its current sponsorship name of Etihad Stadium) is a multi-purpose sports and entertainment stadium in the Docklands precinct of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Construction started in October 1997 under the working name, "Victoria Stadium", and was completed in 2000 at a cost of A$460 million. Originally built as a replacement for Waverley Park, the stadium is primarily used for Australian rules football and is the headquarters of the Australian Football League (AFL) which, as part of the construction deal, assumes ownership of the ground in 2025. Also headquartered at the stadium is Seven Network's digital broadcast centre. The stadium has been host to other sporting events, including Melbourne Victory soccer matches and one-off matches for cricket, rugby league and rugby union as well as number of special events and concerts. The stadium has been controversial since its first construction and there has been a significant amount of criticism directed toward the facility, particularly from its major tenant, the AFL. The AFL have increasingly regarded the stadium owner as a hostile landlord, engaging in numerous lawsuits against the current owners and threatening to build a rival stadium as close as a kilometre away in the short-term.〔 In October 2014 it was announced that stadium management had signed a 5-year deal to host the Speedway Grand Prix of Australia as part of the Speedway Grand Prix series from 2015. This will be the first SGP of Aust since it was held for the only time in 2002 at the Stadium Australia in Sydney.〔(Speedway GP Series Returns to Australia in 2015 )〕 ==History== The stadium was announced on 31 October 1996 as a replacement for the much larger Waverley Park as a headquarters for the Australian Football League. 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 on 21 June 2006 for A$330 million. In 2025 the AFL will take over the ownership of the stadium. Docklands 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. The first match to be played at the ground was between Essendon and Port Adelaide, before a crowd of 43,012, in Round 1 of the 2000 AFL season. Essendon won the match by 94 points. In 2000, the first indoor One Day International was held when the Australian cricket team played South Africa in the "Super Challenge". It has been a venue for usually off-season one day matches but it held VB Series matches in 2006 due to the Melbourne Cricket Ground being unavailable due to preparations for it being the main stadium for the 2006 Commonwealth Games. The stadium 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. It was first used for a Melbourne Storm game in July 2001. Despite the seating being a key feature of the stadium, it has rarely been used, citing damage to turf, time to deploy the seats and a reduced capacity (the corners of the stadium in level 1 are not movable). Docklands Stadium first featured rugby league football when it was used as the Melbourne Storm's home ground for one season in 2001. The Storm continued to play home games at the ground sporadically in the following years. Docklands was also the venue for the third and deciding game of the 2006 State of Origin series and Australia's home game against New Zealand in the 2006 Tri-nations series. During the 2008 Rugby League World Cup Australia played England at the stadium and the opening games of the 2009 and 2012 State of Origin series were also played here, the latter attracting 56,021, a new record for rugby league at the stadium. In 2015 LED electronic advertising was added around the perimeter of the ground on level 1 and 2. On 24 October, 2015 the stadium hosted Motorcycle speedway when it played host to the 2015 Speedway Grand Prix of Australia (on a long temporary track) which was the twelfth and final round of the 2015 Speedway Grand Prix World Championship season. It was the first time Australia had hosted a round of the SGP event since the final round of the 2002 season in Sydney. With stadium capacity capped at 42,000 for the event, 26,609 fans saw 45 year old American rider Greg Hancock take out his 20th SGP Final (coincidentally, Hancock had also won the 2002 event). Danish rider Niels-Kristian Iversen finished second with Poland's Maciej Janowski finishing third. Reigning Australian Champion Jason Doyle qualified for the final but was outed in a crash in the first turn in which he suffered neck and chest injuries. A fully conscious Doyle was then transported to the Royal Melbourne Hospital for observation.〔(Doyle stable after crash )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Docklands Stadium」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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