After a night spent watching Australia beat New Zealand 12-8 to christen AAMI Park, there is no doubt in my mind that Melbourne's newest sporting icon and first purpose built rectangular stadium is of a world class standard that will compliment the already impressive sporting infrastructure located throughout the city.

Its location, next to Olympic Park on Olympic Boulevard is among an enormously crowded sporting precinct. Movement between the MCG, Rod Laver Arena, Hisense Arena, the Westpac Centre, Olympic Park and AAMI Park is convenient and easy.

However parking could become an issue in the future as spaces are limited throughout the area. It is likely the MCG car park will be used for events at AAMI Park, though when there are matches at the MCG, like on Friday night, the problem will arise again. Your best bet when travelling to AAMI Park is public transport. Train stations, as well as tram and bus stops are all located within close proximity of the venue and are within walking distance.

In terms of a viewing perspective, it will be hard to find a bad vantage point among the 30,500 seats within the venue. For example, my own seat for the rugby league test was located in the back row of level 3 on the Eastern Stand; this provided me with a perfect view of the field as well as feeling that I was on top of the action. This was thanks to to the sharp gradient of seating on Level 3, something which is far superior to the top-level seating at the MCG or Etihad Stadium.

Seating is divided into three levels; Level 1 seating offers fans a close-to the action experience with the first row being about four or five metres from the touchline. Level 3 on the other hand presents a different viewing experience, offering a better view of the whole field of play while still remaining close, and ‘on top' of the action. Alternatively, Level 2 only consists of a few rows and seating is mainly dedicated for those in corporate suites and dining rooms. Again, the view is outstanding.

Within the stadium, the entities such as food stalls, bars and toilets are frequent and easily accessible, regardless of where your seat is. The food supplied comes with a little more variety than Melbourne's other sporting stadiums, with ‘healthy' food options found at most stalls. Prices on the other hand are much the same with $4.30 getting you a pie and $4.70 a bucket of chips. No complaints could be made about the staff either, they were helpful, directing patrons to correct gates and seats, something that was needed on a night where the stadium was new to nearly everyone. The two big video screens are located in opposite corners of the stadium and are easy to view as was the sound system to hear throughout the duration of the night.

The only downside of the night was a leaky roof in sections of the stadium. This meant several sections of the crowd in under cover areas donning ponchos to protect themselves from the rain - certainly an the one embarrassing aspect of the night for the Victorian government and the stadium management. Hopefully this is something which will be fixed in the near future as the stadium gets its ‘finishing' touches, which includes the ground's exterior LED lights which were not on show for the event.

As one of 29,442 spectators inside the purpose built rectangular stadium, the atmosphere was second to none and no doubt will rival stadiums of a similar size around the world in terms of excitement and feeling generated. Despite its small capacity, the noise and excitement reverberates around the stadium and onto the field.

Compared with Etihad Stadium and Olympic Park, for the overall experience, AAMI Park is streets ahead when it comes to sports on rectangle fields. Only a full or close to full capacity MCG at a rugby or soccer match could rival the atmosphere that will be created at the new AAMI Park in the future for those who love their sport on rectangular fields.

Jonathan Demos is a journalism student at La Trobe University and an all-round sports fan.