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[edit] Sport

Large cricket crowd at the Melbourne Cricket Ground

Melbourne is a notable sporting location as the host city for the 1956 Summer Olympics games (the first Olympic Games ever held in the southern hemisphere), along with the 2006 Commonwealth Games. The city is home to three major annual international sporting events: the Australian Open (one of the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments), the Melbourne Cup (horse racing), and the Australian Grand Prix (Formula One). Melbourne was proclaimed the "World's Ultimate Sports City", for the second time, in 2008.^[143] The city is home to the National Sports Museum, which until 2003 was located outside the members pavilion at the Melbourne Cricket Ground and reopened in 2008 in the Olympic Stand.^[144]

Australian rules football and cricket are the most popular sports in Melbourne and also the spiritual home of these two sports in Australia and both are mostly played in the same stadiums in the city and its suburbs. The first ever official cricket Test match was played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in March 1877. The first Australian rules football matches were played in Melbourne in 1859 and the Australian Football League is headquartered at Docklands Stadium. Nine of its teams are based in the Melbourne metropolitan area and the five Melbourne AFL matches per week attract an average 40,000 people per game.^[145] Additionally, the city annually hosts the AFL Grand Final.

The city is also home to several professional franchises/teams in national competitions including Cricket clubs Melbourne Stars, Melbourne Renegades and Victorian Bushrangers who play in the Big Bash League and other domestic cricket competitions, Football (Soccer) clubs Melbourne Victory and Melbourne Heart who play in the A-league competition, the rugby league club Melbourne Storm^[146] who play in the NRL competition, the rugby union club Melbourne Rebels who play in the Super Rugby competition, the netball club Melbourne Vixens who play in the trans-Tasman trophy ANZ Championship, and the basketball club Melbourne Tigers who play in the NBL competition and the Bulleen Boomers and Dandenong Rangers who play in the WNBL and the baseball club Melbourne Aces who play in the Australian Baseball League. A second Melbourne-based NBL team may be established for the 2011–2012 season.^[147] In November 2008, it was announced that the Victorian Major Events Company had informed the Australian Olympic Committee that Melbourne was considering making bids for either the 2024 or 2028 Summer Olympics.^[148]

[edit] Economy

Melbourne's entertainment and conference precinct (Crown Casino and Convention Centre) make substantial annual contributions to the Victorian economy ($2 billion^[149] and $3 billion respectively)

Melbourne has a highly diversified economy with particular strengths in finance, manufacturing, research, IT, education, logistics and transportation, conventions and tourism.^{[citation needed]} Melbourne is headquarters for many of Australia's largest corporations, including five of the ten largest in the country (based on revenue), and five of the largest six in the country (based on market capitalisation)^[150] (ANZ, BHP Billiton (the world's largest mining company), the National Australia Bank, Rio Tinto and Telstra); as well as such representative bodies and thinktanks as the Business Council of Australia and the Australian Council of Trade Unions. The city is home to Australia's largest and busiest seaport which handles more than $75 billion in trade every year and 39% of the nation's container trade.^{[98][151][152]} Melbourne Airport provides an entry point for national and international visitors, and is Australia's second busiest airport.

Melbourne is also an important financial centre. Two of the big four banks, NAB and ANZ, are headquartered in Melbourne. The city has carved out a niche as Australia’s leading centre for superannuation (pension) funds, with 40% of the total, and 65% of industry super-funds including the $40 billion-dollar Federal Government Future Fund. The city was rated 34th within the top 50 financial cities as surveyed by the Mastercard Worldwide Centers of Commerce Index (2007),^[153] between Barcelona and Geneva, and second only to Sydney (14th) in Australia.

Melbourne is Australia's industrial centre. It is the centre of Australia's automotive industry, which includes Ford and Toyota manufacturing facilities, and the engine manufacturing facility of Holden and parts suppliers. It has the Australian automotive headquarters and design centres. It is also home to a very wide variety of other manufacturers, ranging from petrochemicals, aircraft parts and pharmaceuticals to fashion garments, paper manufacturing and food processing.^[154]

It is a major international centre for biotechnology, and is the base of such companies as CSL and Biota. Melbourne has an important ICT industry that employs over 60,000 people (one third of Australia's ICT workforce), with a turnover of $19.8 billion and export revenues of $615 million. In addition, tourism also plays an important role in Melbourne's economy, with approximately 7.6 million domestic visitors and 1.88 million international visitors in 2004^[155] In 2008, Melbourne overtook Sydney with the amount of money that domestic tourists spent in the city.^[156] accounting for around $15.8 billion annually^[157] Melbourne has been attracting an increasing share of domestic and international conference markets. Construction began in February 2006 of a $1 billion 5000-seat international convention centre, Hilton Hotel and commercial precinct adjacent to the Melbourne Exhibition and Convention Centre to link development along the Yarra River with the Southbank precinct and multi-billion dollar Docklands redevelopment.^[158]