Best-of list · Sports Guide
Ten ranked Melbourne sports bars, from the MCG-side footy pubs to the CBD rooms with 21 screens that carry the AFL, the cricket and the A-League.
The short answer
10 ranked rooms follow. How we picked is at the end of this guide.
Melbourne calls itself the sporting capital, and the screens here back it up, from the AFL season into the cricket, the A-League and the spring carnival. A real matchday bar in this city clears four things: enough screens that no seat misses the play, the package access to find any code, sound on the match that matters, and a crowd that turns a goal into a roar. The CBD holds the biggest rooms, several within a short walk of the MCG. These ten get game day right, whether you came for the footy, the cricket, or a late-night Champions League tie.
These rooms lead on screen count and sit a short walk from the MCG, which makes them the pre-game and post-game base on a footy day.
How we picked
We rank Melbourne sports bars on screen count and sightlines, package access across the codes, proximity to the MCG, sound policy, and the crowd. We checked every bar here against its own current listing and at least one independent source, including Time Out Melbourne, Concrete Playground and Man of Many. For the wider picture, see our pillar guide to the best bars for watching the game, our ranking of the best cities for sports bars, and the Melbourne sports bar hub.
Last reviewed June 9, 2026 by the barsforKings editorial desk.
The Imperial Hotel runs 21 screens across the venue showing the AFL, NRL, NBA, NFL and more, the biggest count in the CBD. The Sporting Globe in Richmond and Crown's sports bars also carry walls of screens, each able to run several codes at once.
The Duke of Wellington and The Imperial both sit a short walk from the MCG, which makes them the natural pre-game and post-game base on a footy day. Young and Jackson, opposite Flinders Street Station, fills for a marquee fixture too.
The CBD sports rooms carry every code. The Sporting Globe and The Imperial both run the cricket through summer and the A-League across the season, with sound on the headline match and the other codes on the side screens.
European kickoffs land in the small hours in Melbourne, so the late-closing CBD rooms are the call. The Sporting Globe and the Crown sports bars carry the big European nights, but check the start times before you head out.
Tom covers sports bars and beer halls worldwide. He ranks game-day rooms on screen count, proximity to the ground, and how a room handles a footy fixture that clashes with the cricket or the A-League.
Last reviewed 2026-06-09 · The editors recheck hours and closures against current local coverage.