Melbourne Park in $363m redevelopment 19/01/2010 |
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Melbourne Park will receive a $363m facelift to stop cities such as Singapore or Dubai from poaching the Australian Open tennis tournament.
Other cities including Madrid and Sydney have also expressed an interest in staging the first grand slam of the year, but the redevelopment of Melbourne Park is designed to ensure that the venue continues to host the event until at least 2036.
Victoria’s Premier John Brumby joined Tennis Australia and Melbourne Olympic Park Trust representatives today (Jan 19) to pledge the Government’s support for the scheme.
Margaret Court Arena will get a retractable roof as part of the revamp, making the Australian Open the first grand slam to have three undercover courts. Rod Laver Arena and Hisense Arena, which already have roofs, will also be refurbished.
The second major aspect of the redevelopment will see a new Eastern Plaza, which will include eight new indoor courts and 13 new outdoor courts.
The Australian Open has been played exclusively in Melbourne since 1972, moving from the grass courts of Kooyong to the purpose-built hardcourts of Melbourne Park in 1988.
The venue’s contract to host the event expires in 2016 and there have been fears it will be vulnerable to rivals from Asia and the Middle East seeking the prestige of staging a tennis major.
Brumby said that the changes were the key to keeping the event in Melbourne.
“We started this discussion a couple of years ago because every event of this type is becoming very competitive, so we need to be up there with the best to keep it,” he explained.
“It was a foot-loose event past 2016. We could have kept it – but we also could have lost it.
“More than 600,000 people attended the 2009 Australian Open with a third of those coming from interstate and overseas, generating more than $160m for the Victorian economy.”
Work on the project will begin after this year’s tournament with the first stage expected to be completed in five years and a 10- to 15-year timeframe put on the whole project.
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