State Theatre (Melbourne) State Theatre (Melbourne) The State Theatre opened in 1984 and is part of the Arts Centre Melbourne located by the Yarra River and St Kilda Road. Like the other performance venues within the Arts Centre, the State Theatre is underground. The stage is one of the largest in the world. The State Theatre is typically used as a venue for ballet, opera and musical theatre. Companies performing opera in the State Theatre include Opera Australia (which has presented seven or eight operas each season). The first opera in the State Theatre was the new John Copley production of "Don Carlos",
South Melbourne FC has held aspirations to return to the top competition for football clubs in Australia. On 14 February 2007, South Melbourne announced their interest in becoming the second Victorian club in the A-League. In June 2008 South Melbourne FC sent a letter of interest to join the league and lodged an application for the second Melbourne licence as part of the Southern Cross FC consortium, but on 26 September 2008 the Football Federation Australia announced it was commencing exclusive negotiations with the rival 'Melbourne Heart FC' bid which went on to join the competition for the 2010-11 A-League season. In March