Melbourne Cricket Club chief executive Stuart Fox is confident the MCG's turf will be ready to go for Round 1 of the season just three weeks removed from a Taylor Swift concert.
The ground copped some criticism at the start of the 2023 season from some players who suggested areas of the turf were "slippery" and "inconsistent" following the ground's turnaround from an Ed Sheeran concert.
Despite the criticism, the ground had passed all checks from the league and no games were moved or rescheduled.
Fox, speaking on SEN Radio said Taylor Swift's concert will be massively complicated.
“Running concerts are always complicated, but running a Taylor Swift concert is going to be even more complicated,” Fox told SEN's Whateley program on Friday.
“It's just massive. Building the seating plan, we obviously have people on the turf, but it's really around the stage production – 70 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.
“Then you've got to replace half the turf at a significant cost, and then we've got an AFL season three weeks later.”
The AFL season gets underway with a half round in the northern states in 2024, before the Melbourne Cricket Ground hosts the first game in the Victorian capital on Thursday, March 14 between Carlton and Richmond.
The ground will then endure quick turnarounds to Collingwood and Sydney on the Friday evening, Essendon and Hawthorn on Saturday afternoon and Melbourne up against the Western Bulldogs on Sunday afternoon.
The quartet of games on the opening weekend in Melbourne come just 25 days after the completion of the final Swift concert. Given the two days of packdown, it will leave the MCC staff approximately 22 or 23 days to replace the turf.
