What an MCC membership costs, and whether it's worth it
Written for people who already hold a membership, or are close enough to the front of the queue to start caring. Every figure here comes from the Melbourne Cricket Club's own published pages and was checked in September 2026.
The short answer
A Full membership costs $938 a year for a metropolitan member in 2026/27. Restricted is $730, Provisional $470 and 50-Year $375. Joining costs a further $150 to go on the waiting list plus a $1,210 entrance fee, paid once.
At what a non-member pays at the gate, a Full subscription works out even at roughly 19 home and away games, or a smaller number of games if finals and the Boxing Day Test are among them. Below about ten games a year, you are paying a premium for convenience and access rather than getting your money back.
What an MCC membership costs
These are the Club's published annual subscriptions for the 2026/27 season, at the metropolitan rate. The Club applies adjusted rates automatically based on your age and where you live, so country, interstate and overseas members pay less. Check your own renewal notice rather than assuming the figure below.
| Category | Per year |
|---|---|
| Full | $938 |
| Restricted | $730 |
| Provisional | $470 |
| 50-Year | $375 |
What it costs to join
Two one-off amounts sit outside the annual subscription. A $150 nomination fee puts you on the waiting list. A $1,210 entrance fee, including GST, is then payable in instalments as you move up through the categories, with the balance falling due when you are elected to Full adult membership.
Everything else on this page is about the annual subscription, because that is the amount you decide to keep paying every year. The entrance fee is a sunk cost by the time the question gets interesting.
What each category gets you into
The categories are a ladder, and the gap between them is mostly about finals. This matters for the sums further down: a Restricted member who counts a Grand Final they cannot attend will get the wrong answer.
| Full | Restricted | Provisional | |
|---|---|---|---|
| AFL home and away | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| AFL Finals Series | Yes | Most | Most |
| AFL Grand Final | Yes | No | No |
| Cricket, including all Boxing Day Test days | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Special events (for example the ICC Cricket World Cup) | Yes | No | No |
| Buy visitor tickets | Yes | Yes | Some days |
| Vote at general meetings | Yes | No | No |
| Nominate new members | Up to four a season | No | No |
| Reciprocal clubs, interstate and overseas | Yes | No | No |
Full membership also carries a 5% rebate on food and drinks inside the Reserve for members enrolled in MCC Plus, along with complimentary access to the MCC Museum, the Library and MCG tours. None of that is counted in the sums below, so treat it as upside.
50-Year members
50-Year members pay $375 and can attend the Grand Final, either through the reserved seat ballot or the unreserved seating. 50-Year Social members are a separate thing and cannot access the Grand Final.
What a game at the 'G is worth
The honest way to value a membership is to ask what you would have paid to get in if you did not have one. That is money you did not spend, and it is the only figure that makes a subscription comparable to a stack of individual tickets.
These are the default prices used by The Reserve, our free tracker. They are reasonable stand-ins for gate prices rather than quoted fares, and the app lets you change any of them.
| Game | Worth |
|---|---|
| AFL home and away game | $50 |
| AFL final, weeks 1 to 3 | $100 |
| Preliminary Final | $160 |
| Grand Final | $300 |
| Test match day | $80 |
| ODI or T20 international | $50 |
| BBL game | $30 |
| Sheffield Shield day | $10 |
The Grand Final figure needs explaining. A Full member's entry to the Members' Reserve is included at no extra cost, so $300 is not a ticket price. It prices scarcity: a non-member largely cannot buy their way into that day at any price, and the ability to simply walk in is the single most valuable thing the membership does.
How many games it takes to break even
Three worked seasons, each landing near a $938 Full subscription. None of them is unusual for someone who goes to the football.
| A season that looks like this | Worth |
|---|---|
| 19 home and away games | $950 |
| 12 games, 4 days of the Test, 2 BBL nights | $980 |
| 6 games, 3 days of the Test, a Preliminary Final and the Grand Final | $1,000 |
So it is roughly a fortnightly habit through winter, or a much smaller number of games if the big ones are among them. That last season is only eleven games.
On a Restricted subscription
Restricted members pay $730 and cannot count a Grand Final. That makes the target lower but removes the fastest way of reaching it.
| A season that looks like this | Worth |
|---|---|
| 15 home and away games | $750 |
| 9 games, 3 days of the Test, a final | $790 |
On a Provisional subscription
At $470 the bar is roughly nine or ten home and away games, or six games plus a few days of the cricket. Provisional is the category where the sums are easiest to clear, which is worth remembering when the renewal notice arrives and the number has gone up again.
A caution about all of this. Breaking even is not the same as value. A membership also buys you the ability to decide on the morning of a game that you feel like going, without a ticket, a queue or a price. Some people would pay the subscription for that alone. The sums tell you what you captured, not what it was worth to you.
The Grand Final
The most valuable day of the year and the one with the most rules attached.
For Full members, basic entry to the Members' Reserve on Grand Final day is included at no extra cost. You scan your membership card like any other day. There is no face value ticket to buy.
What is optional is a guaranteed reserved seat, allocated by ballot. Registering costs $35 including GST, and if you are unsuccessful the fee is refunded in full to the card you registered with. There are roughly 14,500 reserved seats, including accessibility seating.
If you do not enter the ballot, or enter and miss out, there are about 7,000 unreserved seats and 1,000 standing places, first in and first served. Turning up early is the whole strategy.
Two exclusions matter. No visitor tickets are available for the Grand Final, so you cannot bring a guest. And unless the Club advises otherwise, Restricted and Provisional members do not have access to the Members' Reserve on Grand Final day.
Bringing guests
Half the value of a membership is being the one who can get everyone in. The rules are less generous than most people assume.
Full and Restricted members can buy visitor tickets into the Reserve for most cricket and football at the MCG. Provisional members can bring guests on certain match days only, depending on the match category. How many you can buy varies with that category, so check the event page for the specific day.
The AFL Finals Series works differently: finals are not assigned a match category, and arrangements are set individually for each match and published on its event page.
The Long Room and the balcony need a separate pass on top of a visitor ticket, and those are limited too.
One rule with teeth: on-selling a visitor ticket is strictly prohibited under Club rules, including selling it at face value. Members have faced disciplinary action for it. Take your mates, don't run a business.
How long the wait actually is
The Club declines to estimate this, and is right to: the intake depends on how many members leave and how many places open up each year. But the published intake tells you where the queue has actually reached.
For the 2026/27 season, the Club offered:
| Offered | To candidates nominated | Roughly |
|---|---|---|
| Provisional | 1 May 2009 to 31 March 2010 | 16 to 17 years |
| Restricted | 1 December 2003 to 31 March 2005 | 21 to 22 years |
| Full | 1 February 1994 to 31 December 1994 | about 32 years |
Read down that table and you have the whole journey: put your name down today and, on the current run rate, you are a Provisional member in your late thirties if you nominate in your early twenties, Restricted about five years later, and Full roughly a decade after that. The bands shift every year, so treat this as where the queue stands rather than a promise.
The Club's own words: "it is not possible to estimate exactly how long a candidate on the waiting list will have to wait before they are offered membership."
So, is it worth it?
It depends on a number nobody tracks, which is why the question gets argued about rather than answered. Three honest cases:
If you get to twenty or more games a year, it is not close. You are buying games at well under gate price and skipping the ticketing entirely.
If you get to ten to fifteen games, you are around break even, and the answer turns on how much you value walking up without a ticket, the seat you get, and having somewhere civilised to stand.
If you get to fewer than about eight games, you are paying a premium. That can still be a perfectly good decision, particularly if the Grand Final is among them or you are holding a place you waited decades for. But it is worth knowing that it is what you are doing.
Most members do not know which of those three they are in, because the games are spread across a year and nobody counts. That is the entire reason we built the app.
Questions
How much is an MCC membership per year?
For the 2026/27 season the metropolitan annual subscription is $938 for Full, $730 for Restricted, $470 for Provisional and $375 for 50-Year members. Adjusted rates apply automatically based on your age and where you live.
Is an MCC membership worth it?
On a $938 Full subscription you break even at roughly 19 home and away games, or about eleven games if a Preliminary Final, a Grand Final and a few days of the Test are among them. Above twenty games a year it is clearly good value; below about eight you are paying for access and convenience rather than getting your money back.
What year is the MCC waiting list up to?
For the 2026/27 intake, Provisional membership was offered to waiting list candidates who nominated between 1 May 2009 and 31 March 2010. Restricted went to Provisional members who nominated between 1 December 2003 and 31 March 2005, and Full to Restricted members who nominated during 1994.
Do Restricted members get into the Grand Final?
No. Unless the Club advises otherwise, Restricted and Provisional members do not have access to the Members' Reserve on AFL Grand Final day. Full and 50-Year members do.
Does a Full member have to buy a Grand Final ticket?
No. Entry to the Members' Reserve is included and you scan your membership card. A guaranteed reserved seat is a separate ballot costing $35 including GST, refunded in full if you are unsuccessful.
How many guests can I bring into the Members' Reserve?
Full and Restricted members can buy visitor tickets for most football and cricket, with the number depending on the match category, so check the event page for the day in question. No visitor tickets are available for the Grand Final, and on-selling a visitor ticket is prohibited under Club rules.
Sources
Everything above comes from the Melbourne Cricket Club's own pages, checked in September 2026. Fees and intake bands change annually, so verify before making a decision on them.