Lockers ‘ripped out’, MCG ‘turned upside down’ in unprecedented makeover
Melbourne journalist Sam Edmund has detailed the extraordinary behind-the-scenes extent of the MCG’s makeover for Friday’s historic NFL game.
A crowd of close to 100,000 is expected for the Los Angeles Rams vs San Francisco 49ers showdown, the first NFL regular season game to be played in Australia.
A giant NFL football outside the MCG. Getty Images
And an army of workers has been transforming the country’s most famous stadium from an AFL finals venue to a gridiron one.
Speaking on SEN, Edmund revealed that an underground MCG carpark has become an office block and AFL lockers had been replaced with NFL versions.
“All the AFL lockers have been completely ripped out,” Edmund said.
“They’re gone. They’ve been turned upside down in the locker rooms basically, and replaced... our lockers are not wide enough, not big enough for the big dogs...
“The chippies have been busy down there. Every function room at the MCG has had its furniture taken out. NFL furniture’s come in. NFL approved furniture.
“This is what the NFL do. The whole stadium has changed. The whole overlay has changed. All the livery’s changed, all the signage has changed. The food menus have changed. It’s the biggest event that the MCG would have ever hosted…
“So footy fans, when you get in there, you’re not going to recognise the joint. The MCG’s never had a makeover like this before.”
Up to 8000 square metres of turf will also be replaced post-game given the depth of the NFL’s line marking paint job.
“The NFL pump hundreds and hundreds of litres of paint into the turf, right, particularly in the end zones as we know, but even their line markings,” Edmund explained.
“It goes super deep... they use so much paint that you can’t wash it out, at least not quickly, so they have to replace the turf… as soon as the final whistle goes for this game, the staff are going to come in, they’re going to rip 6000-8000 square metres of turf up, so essentially the entire NFL playing area, gone. They’ll work all the way through the night, it probably won’t be complete until Tuesday, new turf.”
The regular season attendance record for an NFL game was set in 2009, when 105,121 fans watched the New York Giants play the Dallas Cowboys at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
Kyle Shanahan talks to the media. Getty Images
The 49ers have gone on a charm offensive since touching down in Melbourne and coach Kyle Shanahan backtracked on his earlier remarks where he said there was “not much benefit” in the team coming Down Under for a Rams ‘home’ game.
“That was nothing against Australia or anything, that’s just about competition and how important our 17 games are,” Shanahan said.
“It’s cool for us to always have an advantage of having what I see as one home game a year in LA, just the way our fans take over that stadium, so it was disappointing to let them off the hook and get them out of that.
“Knowing how our fans roll, I have a feeling they won’t be much different here. I expect to have a good showing. After being here for a couple of days this is the right time to be here, it’s the right place to be, and it’s right team to go against.”
Shanahan, one of the sharpest offensive minds in NFL history, has had a bizarre pre-season.
The 46-year-old was involved in a nasty car crash in July, suffering a severe concussion, a broken nose, a broken left hand, three fractured ribs, and facial lacerations requiring more than 40 stitches.
NFL journalists initially kept the story quiet, but Shanahan eventually took the blame for the accident after police initially claimed the other driver was at fault.
Kyle Shanahan and his coaching staff at AAMI Park. Getty Images
Shanahan may also be relieved to be far away from the notorious electrical sub-station next to the team’s practice facility in Santa Clara.
The substation has its own X account, with 27,300 followers and a bio that reads: “Was never my intention to cause trouble, it’s just my nature.”
The 49ers engaged a scientist to investigate a viral conspiracy theory claiming that the high electromagnetic fields were to blame for an unusually high injury rate.
“We did hire an independent scientist,” 49ers GM John Lynch said.
“He basically (said) it was a big nothing burger. We’re safe. We’re in a safe place of work. The levels are 400 times less than an unsafe zone.”
