Selling the MCG
The Ponsford and Olympic Stands and the Members Pavilion were being replaced. With the help of a great friend Bruce Hultgren, we tracked down the name of the company that was doing the demolition and was thrilled to find that they had a lot of the timber from the Ponsford Stand seating and flooring on hand.
I was stunned to learn they also had a considerable amount of the world famous MCC Crested Carpet from the members dining room. This was the custom-made carpet that had been trod upon by many great players, including Don Bradman and EJ Whitten.

Meanwhile I started on the sales side of the equation. I wrote my now famous press release with the headline “21-Year Old Sells the MCG for Under $500.” That garnered the wave of publicity that I was hoping for and kickstarted sales, so we could pay for production costs.
Years later, I still had the last of the carpet stored in mum’s garage. She reminded me of this every time I visited.
The thing was, I’d tried to sell the rest of the carpet before this. I’d contacted a few of Australia’s leading sports memorabilia dealers. They either wanted to pay a pittance for the remaining carpet or sell the frames for over $1,200!

As it happens, there are still a few framed pieces of carpet from this limited edition run left. You can find out more here.
The truly unique thing about this particular piece of sports memorabilia is that it wasn’t created as a collector’s piece. This was the original and authentic carpet that lay in the elegant MCC Members Dining Room in the Ponsford Stand before that area was demolished in 2003. It is a genuine piece of sporting history.