Swan Street Insider

Leading up to Melbourne Victory's first home game at the new purpose built football stadium AAMI Park, The Football Sack's "Fan's View" writer, Scott Condon had the privilege of attending a guided tour of the Stadium.

AAMI Park is situated next to Melbourne's spiritual home of football; Olympic park. It's a stones throw away from the MCG, Rod Laver Arena, Hicense Arena and the Westpac Center (formerly the Glasshouse) in the area that is commonly known as Melbourne's sporting precinct.

Not only is Swan Street magnificent to look at but it is unique in the way it is set apart from all other stadiums in this country with its bio-framed bubble shaped roof which is designed for maximum sunlight and water catchment. The roof contains thousands of LED lights that light up the Melbourne sky and can be changed depending on the colour of the team playing.

Victory is the main tenant of the stadium with all their football administration and operations housed at AAMI Park. Melbourne Heart will play all their home games at the stadium with Victory moving their large crowd-drawing games to Etihad Stadium.

After touring the stadium I was left with no doubt that Victory will be the envy of the rest of the competition with the state of the art facilities. This includes lap pools, ice baths, a spring-loaded gym floor and large gymnasium.

The capacity of the stadium is 30,050 which will be tested on Saturday night for Victory's first home game at AAMI park against the Robbie Fowler led Perth Glory, who themselves have a fantastic band of travelling fans.

We were also given the opportunity to walk up the players tunnel and onto the pitch, which from ground level looks immaculate and seemed to play very well for Hearts first game last Thursday. Incidentally that game drew a healthy crowd of just over 11,000.

Part of the night included speaking to Victory coach Ernie Merrick and Football operations manager Gary Cole. Both were very upbeat about the upcoming season but also very coy about the ever-present rumours of the mystery striker signing which have been doing the rounds for a few weeks.

I also had the chance to speak to a few players including Billy Celeski who pulled up well after his first A-League outing in nine months, albeit only thirty minutes off the bench (and a goal)

I personally cannot wait for Saturday nights game. The Victory crowd has been far and away the best crowd over the duration of the A-League. If anyone deserves a stadium such as this then surely it is the Melbourne faithful.



Keep an eye out at the conclusion of every round of the Hyundai A-league, as Scott will be delivering a 'Fans View' wrap every week. If you want to get in touch with Scott, or anyone at the Sack, then click on our 'Contact Us' tab and fire away!