Plan to end half a lifetime's wait for MCC membership Members tickets for the replay of the 2010 AFL Grand Final go on sale at the MCG. Photo: Rodger Cummins A prediction that a newborn nominated for Melbourne Cricket Club membership would not be admitted until after their 40th birthday is the trigger for a planned membership expansion at the MCG. The MCC's membership pool of just under 104,000 is being asked to approve, in August next year, a change to its constitution to allow an increase in the number of second-tier memberships on offer. Its plan is to expand the membership pool by almost half - 50,000 - over the next 5-10 years, on the basis the 23,000-seat reserve is "underutilised." The pace of the expansion would be reviewed annually to, the MCC said, "ensure minimal impact on member comfort and access to amenities in the reserve." The proposed expansion is almost double the 30,000 approved by members in the six years to August 2005, which was to help fund the major redevelopment of the northern half of the ground in preparation for the 2006 Commonwealth Games. A key lure of MCC membership, which comprises full and restricted membership classes, is free entry to almost all AFL and cricket matches. The key advantage for full members, whose current annual fee is $642, over restricted members is the ability to attend the AFL grand final, subject to capacity. They can also buy more visitor tickets. The MCC intends to generally maintain the current size of the full-membership pool of 62,363, fearing an expansion would leave too many full members wanting to attend stranded outside. Beyond the grand final, however, the MCC argues there is capacity for expansion. Its rationale is that even at major events like day one of the Boxing Day Test, the AFL preliminary finals and the iconic Anzac Day match the area typically needs holders of visitor tickets, in addition to full and restricted members, to fill up. It is not unusual for major events for the ground to be at, or near, its 100,000 capacity everywhere except the MCC reserve. In the year of the Commonwealth Games the MCC had a total of 97,000 members, and a waiting list of 164,000. In the eight years since its membership pool has grown by only 6.58 per cent as its waiting list has surged 43.9 per cent, to a current pool of 236,000. Anyone wanting to submit a nomination for MCC membership, for themselves or on behalf of someone else such as a relative, can do so with the signatures of two full members and a one-off $110 application fee. The most recent MCC entrants were nominated between April and July of 1996, meaning those put on the waiting list at birth are 18. Those nominated between January and April of 1990 were offered upgrades to full memberships. The MCC expects the current induction pace of all nominees from a four-month period, which will next year begin at August 1996, will soon slow to about two or three months. Its modelling is that without reform new applicants would not be admitted until 2055, irrespective of their age on application. The MCC has not disclosed by just how much the proposed reform would reduce the waiting time, other than to predict it would create a more "vibrant" membership base. "This rule change gives hope that many families . . . can continue the generational connection of MCC membership," it said in its announcement to members. The proposal, to scrap the procedural rule than no more than 40 per cent of its membership pool can be restricted members, would be voted on at a special general meeting to be held immediately before its annual meeting in August. If approved, the first intake would be offered membership for the 2015-16 cricket season and the AFL season that follows it. Alternative proposals rejected by the MCC as part of its plan to cut the waiting list were: significantly raising membership fees, increasing the size of the full-membership pool, introducing a tier of membership below restricted, halting membership applications, an annual fee to stay on the waiting list and introducing a social membership for those who no longer wish to attend matches.