Speaking on the radio in the early 1930s an SCG Member had this to say: ‘Breathes there a man with soul so dead that he never heard of the Sydney Cricket Ground?’ The Member was none other than the Australian bush poet and journalist, A B ‘Banjo’ Paterson, who at the time was reminiscing about the ground during a radio talk on the ABC. Paterson knew the SCG well. He had attended cricket matches there since he was a boy in the 1870s and he had been a Member of the ground since he was 21. He saw the SCG as one of the great landmarks of Sydney, a magical place where the greats of sport performed great feats.
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As far back as 1885, the year Paterson became an SCG Member, ground membership offered a lot more than free entry to cricket and football matches. SCG Members were provided then with a range of other benefits, including use of the ground’s tennis courts, which had been laid in 1878, of its bowling green, its cricket nets, billiards table, quoits green and even, for a time, its skittle alley. Well over a century later, this tradition of providing Members with a whole package of benefits has not only been maintained but expanded to a point where Members now have access to a range of facilities unequalled in Sydney.
The SCG is steeped in sporting history. Every famous Australian cricketer, league footballer and rugby footballer of the past 130 years has competed within its precincts, as have numerous other sporting stars. Hector Hogan and Betty Cuthbert have run there; Jimmy Carruthers has fought there; and the great American cyclist of the early 1900s, Major Taylor, has raced there. The SCG itself is historic, of course. The Members Pavilion and Ladies Stand, built in 1886 and 1896 respectively, are counted among the nation’s architectural treasures — and both are reserved for Members. The other Members stand, the M A Noble Stand, may look quite modern, but it is historically significant, too. It was opened as long ago as 1936.
Gold membership was introduced in the 1980s and provides access to the SCG, Sydney Football Stadium and Stadium Fitness Centre.