Melbourne in Victoria, Australia, is frequently selected and called the sports capital of the world. Melbourne is 2nd biggest city in Australia yet were voted the sporting capital of the decade in 2016. The people of Melbourne happen to be sports crazy and it does not matter exactly what the sports activity is, the crowds in Melbourne turn out for it.

So just why is the city the sports capital and exactly how did Melbourne become the sporting capital? For starters, the city is known for a vibrant sports past and tradition. The city was initially established in 1835 and sports activity became a feature of city life starting from then, with the Melbourne Cricket Club becoming created in 1838. The now well-known Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) opened in 1853. It is still presently there and it is the actual most significant sports arena in the country. Several types of football started to be also popular in Melbourne’s formative years, ultimately bringing about its own sport – Australian Rules Football, or ‘footy’ as it’s known as by the residents. The first Melbourne Cup horse race happened in 1861 and it is still going. The first Australian tennis championships occured in 1905 and is also still held in Melbourne. They held the 1956 Olympics.

Local community sport is a really important part of the the cities life style and involvement rates in the city are among the highest in the world. This can be easily seen each and every weekend you will see exactly how prominent community sporting activities is with people partaking and enjoying a variety of sporting activities such as cricket, tennis games, footy, rugby, netball, basketball, baseball, golfing along with soccer. They play a fundamental part of so many people’s community lives and health and fitness. When people in Melbourne aren’t actively playing sport, they’re fans of watching sport. The Australian Football League grand final pulls 100 000 people to the MCG. Rugby Union isn’t a well-known or a popular sports activity in the city, but Melbourne stills has the world record for the highest number of individuals to go to watch a game live!

Along with the 1956 Olympics, the city will continue to run world class professional sports. Every year, they hold the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix, the Australian Open Tennis Grand Slam, the Spring Horse racing Carnival, the MotoGP, the Boxing Day cricket test game and also the Rip Curl Pro surfing competition. You will find the key AFL, National Rugby League, or Australian A-League (soccer) games on almost all weekends. There have recently been various other important one-off events like the Commonwealth Games, the Cricket World Cup, World swimming championships and Asian Cup soccer.

All this is backed up by several world class sports activities amenities such as The Melbourne Cricket Ground, the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre, Melbourne Park, Rod Laver Arena, AAMI Park, Hisense Arena, Etihad Stadium, Flemington Racecourse, State Netball and Hockey Centre, Margaret Court Arena and the Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit that is an infrastructure that’s not near to being matched by any other location in the world. You can easily see how and exactly why Melbourne is regarded as the sports capital of the world and why sports activity is such included in the life style in Australia.

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