Melbourne Park

The Australian Open is now managed by Tennis Australia, formerly the Lawn Tennis Association of Australia (LTAA), and was first played at the Warehouseman’s Cricket Ground in St Kilda Road, Melbourne. 2004 was the 92st staging of the event (99th year due to interruption of the War years). The tournament was first played in 1905 as The Australasian Championships, became the Australian Championships in 1927 and the Australian Open in 1969. Since 1905, the Championships have been staged at six different venues as follows: Melbourne (46 times), Sydney (17 times), Adelaide (14 times), Brisbane (eight times), Perth (three times), and New Zealand (twice) in 1906 and 1912.

In 1972, it was decided to stage the Tournament in the one city each year, as opposed to visiting various states across the nation, and the Kooyong Lawn Tennis Club was selected due to Melbourne attracting the biggest patronage. Melbourne Park (formerly Flinders Park) was constructed in time for the 1988 Open to meet the demands of the evolving tournament that had outgrown Kooyong’s capacity. The move to Melbourne Park was an immediate success, with a 90 per cent increase in attendance in 1988 (266,436) on the previous year at Kooyong (140,000).

	Opened		1988
	2006 attendance		550,550
	Rod Laver Arena Capacity		15,000
	Vodafone Arena Opened		2000
	Vodafone Arena Capacity		10,500

Melbourne Park is adjacent to the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Yarra Park, and there are several pedestrian bridges linking the two across the separating railway lines. The park is five minutes walk from Richmond and Jolimont railway stations, and five minutes from the city centre by tram (route 70) or ten minutes by foot.

The Rod Laver Arena was named, in January 2000, after the legendary tennis player Rod Laver who is the only person ever to win the Grand Slam twice. The arena was finished in 1988 and has a seating capacity of 15 000. The arena attracts over 1.5 million visitors per year. It also features a retractable roof the allows players to keep playing in rain or extreme heat. It is the centerpiece of the Melbourne Park’s Tennis Centre. Besides tennis, the arena also plays hosts to motorbike super-crosses, music concerts, conferences, and ballets.

With the roof closed the Rod Laver Arena played host to the gymnastics in the 2006 Commonwealth Games

Construction of the Vodafone Arena commenced in the late 1990s, and was completed in 2000. It was originally named the Multi-purpose Venue, until the naming rights were sold to Vodafone, it has a maximum capacity of 10,500 people. The new South Dragons National Basketball League (NBL) franchise has recently made the Vodafone Arena its home court. Formerly, the Victoria Titans and Melbourne Tigers had Vodafone Arena as their home, until high rental prices forced the teams to find other venues. Until this recent move the venue was largely unused outside of the two weeks of the Australian Open tennis tournament. The arena features a cycling track which is covered over with seating for court events. The tennis court is a Rebound-Ace surface and the roof is retractible, making it one of the few venues where tennis can be played while it is raining.

(source .. wikipedia) reproduced under GFDL

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Australian Open website
Australian Open wikipedia entry
Melbourne Park wikipedia entry
Vodafone Arena
Rod Laver Arena
Tennis Australia
Melbourne & Olympic Parks

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