Venue organisers of Victoria’s iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) have admitted that Taylor Swift’s upcoming Eras Tour shows there pose challenges to ground staff ahead of the next AFL season.
According to stadium boss Stuart Fox, following Ed Sheeran’s recent concert at the MCG some players noted that the pitch was “slippery and inconsistent” as a result of the tens of thousands of fans who had watched the show at the venue in March 2023.
That said, Fox is confident in the stadium and it’s groundskeeper’s ability to have Swift’s tour — that recently grossed over a billion dollars — go ahead and repair in time for the footy, even if it was “quite confronting”.
“Running concerts are always complicated, but running a Taylor Swift concert is going to be even more complicated,” shared Fox in an interview on SEN radio.
“It’s just massive. Building the seating plan, we obviously have people on the turf, but it’s really around the stage production. Seventy semi-trucks coming onto your ground is quite confronting, and you’ve got six days of set-up, three concerts across Friday, Saturday, Sunday evening, two or three days of pack-down.”
Fox also highlighted the minimal amount of time to repair the grounds between Tay’s last Melbourne show on February 18, and the MCG’s first match of the 2024 AFL season.
“Then you’ve got to replace half the turf at a significant cost. And then we’ve got an AFL season three weeks later.”
Despite this cause for concern, ultimately the show is going to go ahead — so nothing to fear for you lucky ticket holders! Phew.
Additionally, Fox shared that the venue plans on continuing to have “the biggest and the best” of concerts take place at the MCG twice or so a year.
“I think holding concerts are really, really important. What I love is the fact that people who don’t normally come to the MCG get to experience it,” he shared.
The first game to take place after Swift’s shows will be Collingwood Magpies vs Sydney Swans on March 15.
And in case you are wondering if Stuart Fox has any spare tickets to the Taylor Swift’s MCG shows: he does not. But you could win some tickets in some of the various competitions and draws here!
