Melbourne in Victoria, Australia, is commonly selected and known as the sporting capital of the world. They are the second largest city in Australia yet were voted the sporting capital of the decade in 2016. The people of Melbourne happen to be sports mad and it isn't important just what the sport is, the people in Melbourne come out for it.
So just why is Melbourne the sporting capital and how did it ended up being the sporting capital? First of all, the city features a rich sporting history and culture. Melbourne was initially founded in 1835 and sport became a feature of city daily life right from then, with the Melbourne Cricket Club becoming created in 1838. The now famed Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) launched in 1853. It is still presently there and it is now the largest sports stadiums in the country. Several types of football started to be also preferred in the cities beginning years, subsequently creating its own sports activity – Australian Rules Football (AFL), or ‘footy’ as it's known as by the locals. The very first Melbourne Cup horse competition was held in 1861 and it is still going. The first Australian tennis championships occured in 1905 and it is still held there. They hosted the 1956 Olympic Games.
Local community sport is a significant part of the Melbourne way of life and involvement rates in Melbourne are some of the highest in the world. This is readily observed each weekend you will see exactly how dominant local community sports is with people partaking and viewing a number of sports activities for example cricket, tennis, footy, rugby, netball, basketball, baseball, golf as well as soccer. They play an important part of so many people’s community lives and wellness. When people in Melbourne aren't playing sport, they are fans of watching sport. The Australian Football League (AFL) grand final attracts 100 000 people to the MCG. Rugby Union is not a well-known or a popular sports activity in Melbourne, but Melbourne stills has the record for the highest number of people to attend to see a game!
As well as the 1956 Olympic Games, Melbourne continues to run world class sporting events. Each year, they hold the F1 Australian Grand Prix, the Australian Open Tennis Grand Slam, the Spring Horse racing Carnival, the MotoGP, the Boxing Day cricket test match along with the Rip Curl Pro surfing tournament. You can find the main AFL, National Rugby League, or Australian A-League (soccer) matches on almost all weekends. There have recently been other international one-off events including the Commonwealth Games, the Cricket World Cup, World swimming championships and Asian Cup soccer.
All this is supported by quite a few first class sports stadiums 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 is not near to being matched by any other location in the world. You can easily see how and the reason Melbourne stands out as the sports capital of the world and exactly why sports activity is unquestionably a part of the life style around Australia.