Home Teams
The Docklands Stadium is officially home ground to five AFL teams. The Western Bulldogs, Carlton, Essendon, St Kilda and North Melbourne use the stadium as their primary home ground, however all the Victorian-based teams have played home games at the ground. The AFL highest home and away attendance recorded at the Docklands Stadium was set on 5 July 2009 when 54,444 people watched St Kilda play Geelong in Round 14.
Melbourne Victory also occasionally play matches at Docklands. Originally, the plan was that the stadium would only be used for A-League games against the Victory's biggest rivals Sydney FC in the 2006/07 A-League season due to the prediction of a large crowd. All other games were supposed to be at the Victory's usual home ground, Olympic Park Stadium. Due to the success of the game, a record crowd of 39,730 attended the game. Due to the success of the game, the Victory found Olympic Park's capacity of 18,000 too small, especially after the Round 4 match at Olympic Park attracted a capacity crowd of 17,617. Melbourne then moved all their home games bar one against the struggling New Zealand Knights to Docklands for the 2006/07 season. The move was a success, with a 27,000 crowd average. The Victory decided to move all their home games permanently from the 2007/08 season. This also gave the stadium a major summer tenant, of which the stadium lacked in its early years.
Melbourne Victory continued to play all games at Docklands until the end of the 2009/10 season, when their new home at the Melbourne Rectangular Stadium was completed. The Victory will play blockbuster and finals games at Docklands, with all other games being played at the new stadium. The Victory will play five blockbuster games against Gold Coast United, Adelaide United (twice), Sydney FC and Melbourne Heart.
In the 2001 NRL season the stadium was the home ground for the Melbourne Storm. It also hosted one home game in 2008 and three home games in 2010. Until the end of 2009, the stadium was also used as the Storm's home finals venue due to the low capacity of its then normal home ground, Olympic Park Stadium.
The Big Bash League side Melbourne Renegades also plays its home games at the Docklands Stadium.
Read more about this topic: Docklands Stadium
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