While mum and dad were staying we took them to the opening night of a new sports stadium, AAMI Park, on May 7th 2010.
Melbourne, despite its long history with sport, has lacked a stadium purpose built for football codes which use a rectangular playing field. AAMI Park is Melbourne's first large purpose built rectangular stadium, the others - the MCG and Etihad Stadium are of oval configuration and best suited to Australian rules football or cricket.
The new stadium features a distinctive "Bioframe" design, with a geodesic dome roof covering much of the seating area, whilst still allowing light through to the pitch.
The exterior of the stadium is covered in thousands of LED lights, which can be programmed to display a variety of patterns and images, setting it on par with the Beijing National Aquatics Center and Allianz Arena. This picture from the outside doesn't do it justice!
The interior of the stadium is awesome and we were very excited to be there on opening night!
Prior to the game, an opening ceremony was staged which featured a laser show, some of Melbourne’s finest sporting events beamed onto the ground, and Ex-Bulldogs star Hazem El Masri had the honour of kicking the first goal at the new venue.
Australia won 12-8 in this one-off Anzac Test. And then it was back home on the train again!
Great night had by all - apart from those that got wet! Before the game had even begun, the roof started leaking! It rained really heavily that night, and water was pouring in through sections of the stadium! Security were handing out ponchos! Luckily we were in the dry!
Operators confirmed the roof was not completed before the official opening and sections of guttering and drainage were still being constructed. Russell Caplan, chair of Melbourne and Olympic Parks Trust, said the operators were "caught out" by the bad weather. Excess water proved an ironic subject for Melbourne Olympic Parks Trust the next morning after a small office fire forced staff to relocate.
Flaming tradies!!!!
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