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What facilities are available at each of the four Test grounds?

Four grounds, four real layouts — what each venue actually offers beyond the pitch

Each of the four Test venues on this tour has its own real character, beyond simply being a cricket ground. Perth Stadium is the newest and most purpose-built; Adelaide Oval pairs cricket history with the city's own heritage skyline; the MCG is the largest and most institutional of the four; the SCG carries more than 140 years of the sport's own history inside its own walls.

Perth Stadium

Opened 2018, the newest venue on this tour by a wide margin — built with its own train station integrated directly into the venue, genuinely walkable food and bar precincts inside the concourse, and a design that keeps every seat closer to the action than most modern stadiums manage.

Perth Stadium — The Series Opener on the Swan

★4.6(14,569 Google reviews)

Where the tour begins on Australia's fastest, bounciest Test pitch

This is the fixture that sets the tone for the whole series. New Zealand haven't toured Australia for a full series since 2019-20, and this is the first time either side has played a four-Test series against the other — so there's no recent form line to lean on, no obvious script. Add a pitch that genuinely rewards fast, accurate bowling over patience, and day one becomes a proper contest rather than a formality. Perth crowds also bring something Adelaide and the MCG don't: a stadium built entirely post-2018, with sightlines and acoustics designed around AFL and cricket together, so even a modest crowd doesn't feel thin. If you only make it to one Test on this tour, the opener carries the most unknowns — which is exactly what makes it worth being there for.

Burswood

Worth knowing

—Book the train, not a rideshare — Perth Stadium Station clears crowds in minutes on match days, while roads around Burswood back up badly after play.
—If you're planning the Matagarup Bridge walk, do it in the morning before the day heats up; there's very little shade on the crossing itself.

Adelaide Oval

The one ground on this tour where the setting is as much a part of the experience as the cricket — St Peter's Cathedral rises directly behind the northern end, and the heritage scoreboard remains in active use alongside modern digital screens.

Adelaide Oval — Cricket's Most Beautiful Ground

★4.6(13,569 Google reviews)

St Peter's Cathedral in the background, a hand-worked 1911 scoreboard, and the Hill

Most modern stadiums solve the capacity problem by demolishing what came before. Adelaide Oval didn't: it kept the hill where you can still sit on the grass with a picnic rug for a fraction of grandstand prices, kept the 1911 scoreboard doing its job by hand, and kept the cathedral in the skyline behind the northern stand. That's rare, and it's why photographers and players alike single this ground out as their favourite in Australia. For this series specifically, Adelaide is the second Test — daytime cricket, not day/night as some past New Zealand tours here have used — so the ground plays as it always has: quick early, harder work for the bowlers as the match wears on. If you want one photograph that captures what touring for this series actually looks like, it's taken from the hill, cathedral in the background, gates onto the outfield still visible from a hundred years ago.

North Adelaide

Worth knowing

—The Riverbank footbridge from Adelaide Railway Station is the fastest route in on foot — about 5 minutes — and avoids the traffic bottleneck on King William Road on a full match day.
—Bring a picnic rug and get to the hill early if you want grass seating; it's first-come, general admission, and fills up fast for a marquee fixture like the Boxing Day lead-in Test.

The MCG

The largest venue on the tour by capacity, and the institutional home of Australian cricket — the National Sports Museum sits inside the ground itself, worth building time around if you're there outside match hours.

The MCG — Boxing Day at the 'G'

★4.7(30,516 Google reviews)

New Zealand's first Boxing Day Test here since 1987, on a rebuilt pitch built for a contest

A Boxing Day Test against New Zealand is a genuinely rare fixture — three times in the ground's history before this tour, the last one 39 years ago. That scarcity matters: this isn't a routine slot on the calendar the way an Ashes Boxing Day Test has become. It's also the one day of this entire series where the size of the crowd itself becomes part of the experience — nowhere else on the tour will you stand among six figures of people on the first morning of a Test match. The MCG's recent pitch overhaul means this isn't a foregone conclusion of a contest either; the venue has deliberately built pace and bounce back into the square specifically so days like this produce cricket worth the crowd. If New Zealand's touring support wants one day that captures what this tour is actually for, it's this one.

Yarra Park

Worth knowing

—Arrive at the queue by 5am to get a seat in the first 20,000 through the gates — the queue moves faster through Jolimont/Gate 3 than through the Members' side.
—The MCG pie from the Yarra Park Kitchen stand (Level 1, Great Southern Stand concourse) is marginally better than the standard kiosks. Order with sauce, eat it before the first ball, accept the mess.
—Richmond Station's exit past Punt Road Oval is the quieter route out after play — most of the crowd funnels toward Jolimont and the CBD, so Richmond avoids the worst of the post-match crush.
—Arrive well before the scheduled start on Boxing Day itself — gates and security queues at Jolimont and Gate 3 move slowly once the crowd builds past 60,000, and day one regularly sells out or comes close given how rare this fixture is for New Zealand.

The SCG

The most historic ground on the tour, hosting Test cricket since 1882 — the heritage Members' Pavilion (1886) still stands, and the ground's own real character sits closer to a traditional English cricket ground than any of the other three, more modern venues.

SCG — The Fourth Test, Sydney in Summer

★4.5(8,130 Google reviews)

New Zealand's only series win in Australia came in 1985-86 — and they lost this ground that tour

Every ground on this tour has history, but the SCG is the only one where New Zealand's history here is genuinely mixed. The 1985-86 tour is still the high-water mark for Black Caps cricket in Australia — their only series win on this soil — and Sydney was the one Test that got away in it, a pitch that wore exactly the way SCG pitches do and handed Australia a chase they shouldn't have got. That tension, a ground that's produced New Zealand's best series and one of its nearest misses in the same tour, is worth knowing walking in. Layer the Pink Test on top of it — a fixture with real weight behind it regardless of who's on the field, ushers in pink, a repainted outfield ring, a crowd that's there for more than the cricket — and this is the Test on the tour where the occasion is doing as much work as the contest. Four days into a five-day match on a pitch that's just started to turn is when this ground is at its most itself.

Moore Park

Worth knowing

—Book Moore Park light rail from Central Station rather than driving — services run roughly every 5 minutes and the ride itself is about 5 minutes, considerably faster than fighting for street parking around Moore Park on match day.
—If you want to see the pitch at its most SCG-like — turning, cracked, a genuine fourth-innings contest — day four or five is the one to prioritise over the earlier days, when the surface plays truer and faster.

Facilities & accessibility

Perth Stadium

450 wheelchair positions and 327 Enhanced Amenity seats — well above the minimum required. Priority access to the left of each gate, lifts at sections 103, 110, 126, 136, and 147, and 2 Changing Places facilities (behind sections 111 and 537). ACROD parking is genuinely limited — register online, opens 3 weeks before each game and closes 9am the Monday before.

Adelaide Oval

275 wheelchair places plus 119 Easy Access seats, grouped across all levels. All three main gates (South, East, North) are step-free, with ramps near every stairway and lifts near every escalator. One accessible ticket window per entrance, with a hearing loop. Book via 1300 665 915 or Adelaide Oval's own access request form.

The MCG

Accessible seating on Levels 1, 2, and 4 of the Olympic Stand, and Levels 1 and 2 of the Shane Warne (formerly Great Southern) Stand — check the MCG's own Accessibility Map before booking, since coverage differs stand to stand. A free mobility shuttle runs during events, and there's a Changing Places facility on-site. Pre-book via Ticketek's Accessible Seating Hotline, 1300 665 915.

The SCG

Wheelchair and companion seating in grandstand bays ORLY 1, ORLY 5, and ORLY 9, plus concourse bays 29 and 30 in the Brewongle Stand. Enter via accessible Gate E, where a staff member directs you through to the O'Reilly lift. Book via Ticketek's Accessible Ticket Booking line, 1300 655 915.

Sources: each venue's official site (Perth Stadium, Adelaide Oval, MCG, SCG); cricket.com.au venue history pages; optusstadium.com.au Access and Inclusion Fact Sheet; adelaideoval.com.au Access Information; mcg.org.au Accessibility and Inclusion; sydneycricketground.com.au Accessibility.