The stadium features a retractable roof and the ground level seating can be converted from oval to rectangular configuration.

[6] Offices at the precinct serve as the headquarters of the Australian Football League (AFL) which, since October 2016, has had exclusive ownership of the venue.

Plans for the stadium were announced in October 1996 as a more centrally located replacement for the much larger but ageing Waverley Park as a headquarters for the Australian Football League.

[8] It was built in the Melbourne Docklands to the immediate west of the CBD, a central but largely deserted industrial area which had just begun its own urban renewal project.

The remaining leasehold interest in the stadium was sold to James Fielding Funds Management in June 2006 for A$330 million.

[14] From the beginning, the stadium's playing surface was criticised for its slipperiness, hardness and lack of grass coverage, and the increased risk of injury that this causes to players.

Concerts held at the stadium are also usually placed at the Southern end due to the ability for grass to recover more quickly.

That evening's pre-season match between St Kilda and Fremantle was delayed due to WorkSafe inspections, but it still went ahead before a small crowd of 5,000.

[19] In 2015, LED electronic advertising was added around the perimeter of the ground on level 1 and 2, as well as a strip synthetic turf around the edge of the fence, outside the boundary line.

The synthetic strip was narrowed after Brisbane Lions player Michael Close suffered a season ending ACL injury on the uneven surface during a game in 2015.

[20][21] The stadium became unpopular with many of its tenant clubs, especially St Kilda, North Melbourne and Western Bulldogs, as high operating costs and the high proportion of gate revenues which were paid back to the stadium meant that clubs earned much lower returns for a game at Docklands than they would have earned from the same attendance at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

[22] Those three clubs all received compensation payments from the AFL to balance the weak deals,[23] and sold occasional home matches to small interstate or international venues for greater financial returns than they could earn at Docklands.

[26] The rest of the redevelopment upgraded stadium infrastructure, connected the precinct to the Melbourne CBD and opened up access to the Docklands waterfront.

[29] In May 2023, Docklands Stadium opened The Runner, becoming the first venue in the Southern Hemisphere to utilise Amazon’s Just Walk Out technology for checkout-free purchases.

[42][43] This once again caused problems, as the AFL would not initially recognise the new name due to its deal with rival airline Qantas.

[52] In 2016, Chris Gayle of the Renegades and the West Indies tied the record for the fastest T20 half century (12 balls) during the last round of BBL 5 at the ground against the Adelaide Strikers.

In the 2001 National Rugby League season, the stadium was the permanent home ground for the Melbourne Storm, but this deal lasted only one year.

In 2023, the Storm returned to play two games at the ground, while AAMI Park was unavailable in July–August due to the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup.

The venue has hosted international basketball,[59] Rugby 7s at the 2006 Commonwealth Games,[46] a 2002 non-televised WWE[60][61] live event[62][63] as part of the WWE Global Warning Tour: Melbourne, the 2015 UFC 193[64] in front of a then-record UFC attendance of 56,214 fans,[65] a motorcycle speedway event (when it played host to the 2015 Speedway Grand Prix of Australia on a 346 metres (378 yards) long temporary track), and a controversial international darts event in 2015 in which spectators seated on the arena started throwing chairs and furniture.

Ed Sheeran holds the record for the largest concert series attendance at the stadium, on the Divide World Tour.