[Edition 53] Melbourne, Monday: A spokesman for the MCG trust announced this week that the multi-national McDonalds corporation had won a hard-fought battle for the catering and naming rights to Australia’s premier sporting venue, the Melbourne Cricket Ground, now to be known as the McG™.

[Edition 53] Melbourne, Monday: A spokesman for the MCG trust announced this week that the multi-national McDonalds Corporation had won a hard-fought battle for the catering and naming rights to Australia’s premier sporting venue, the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

From the start of the AFL season, McDonalds will take over the running of all grandstand food outlets and the stadium itself will be renamed he McG™.

“Initially, we were just going to sign over the catering rights to McDonalds,” said Brian Murgalon at a press conference on Monday. “But when they asked if we wanted a naming rights sponsor with that, we realised we hadn’t really thought it through. It seemed like a good idea, especially since it wasn’t going to cost us any extra.”

When it came to selecting a new moniker, Murgalon explained that the Trust had wanted to move with the times and give the MCG a name that said more than just where it was and what happened there.

“Unfortunately, parochial names like ‘Aussie’ and ‘Colonial’ were already taken, as was ‘Stadium Australia’,” he said. “So we had to go looking for something else that was familiar to Australians and international visitors, and that would inspire our sportsmen and women to conquer the world. McG was the obvious choice.”

CEO of McDonalds (Asia Pacific), Graham Burgler, said that the MCG had always been an attractive proposition to the fast food giant for a number of reasons.

“It’s round with several levels, painfully well-lit and covered in advertisements,” said Burgler. “And it’s not going to be difficult to change the signage. Plus, let’s be honest, it was one of only a handful of markets where our product would be an improvement on the current offering.”