Sidelights of Australian Open Melbourne

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Sidelights of Australian Open, Melbourne

By: Chingshang *

I will be an idiot if I dare to expect Manipur to become a Melbourne in a year or two. But it will not be very illogical to expect the good possibilities that a state could dream of in its life time. Anyway, 'a positive anything is better than a negative nothing’.

I just keep on pondering what are the major strengths and weaknesses of the state we have.

Do we have certain areas in which state can invest for a guaranteed return? Why don't we try to maximise on our own strengths? We are always accustomed with this negative image of the state all throughout the year.

It’s true there are so many things which easily portray the negative character of the state. But then, there are also so many positive things which we can maximise to improve the overall health of the state. Many heads will turned on to the question’ how'. And many will expect the answer to be immediate and ready made. This is the biggest problem we have. We don’t want to work hard.

We don’t want to have perseverance. We don’t want to see the things happening in other areas of work. We are more contented with what we have or what we don’t have. We don’t bother for the state to grow or not. We just try to run our government with the dictates of the centre as it is a must.

Sounds sarcastic? We depend on centre for everything and when we could not manage with the yearly meagre financial assistance from the centre we fight in the name of politics. These statements may true or may not and these are not the statements that may invoke one to think and analyse the affairs of the state.

There are so many think tanks, politicians and learned scholars who know much better than a layman like me and many of them are in the helm of their executive power. They have been trying with little or no success over the years and it is pathetic state of the affair that every common citizen in the state to endure with.

We become so much stubborn as we are more accustomed to the system which is not a system in the real sense of the term. People will question ‘what can you do for the state when you don’t have anything on your own?

Many good things have been writing and publishing daily. But how many people have the guts to digest and thinks seriously about the state? It is not a question. It is something one must grow with.

Problems will be there and many of the problems are the creation of people and people have to find answers to it. We are good in finding fault especially when everything is faulty and there are not many alternatives to choose. If we just try to make a SWOT analysis of the state, definitely we can get a lot of positive and negative facets of the state and it is high time for us to dwell on the positive things that can have a positive impact on the overall development of the state.

It does not require so many intelligent people to analyse the present situation of the state. But it requires a lot of commonsense. We have a lot of opportunities and threats are minimal and can overcome easily. Need of the hour is to find out the resources which we can strengthen and empower people to the maximum.

Even finding resources should not be a difficulty as Manipuris are equally good on par with any other people in the world. But we lack a system, a system that functions perfectly not like ‘also runs’ system. I know you know better that there are so many things to be taken care of.

Law and order is one of the most important things that is highly critical and the problem of the underground or overground is not something which you and me or they can solve in the near future. This will continue with no winner and more losers.

Of course there are also so many pseudo underground organisations with an ideology which aims at the betterment of society. All the organisations whether government, non government, underground, overground or middleground will portray to be the redeemers of society.

That’s a betterment proposition leading nowhere and clash of ideals. Sports, culture and tourism has shown lots of promise for this landlocked state over the years. Sports can bring a totally different frame of mindset to outsiders.

It does not mean that we should think only for the out side image. But showing a positive attitude to outsiders has a lot of hidden benefits. We need to set up certain mechanisms which everybody will be proactive in their attitude and thinking of the state.

I am so impressed and of course engrossed in the thought of sports a way of Development, Friendship, Comradeship, Business, Enterprise and Image building exercise in the wake of the ongoing Australian Open Grand Slam Tennis Championship at Melbourne.

Australian Open, the tennis championship of the Asia pacific is one of the largest and most sought after sporting extravaganza on earth.

Who’s who of the world of tennis converged at Melbourne for the summit clash in the first Grand slam event of the year from 14 Jan-27 Jan 2008. More than 20 million dollars are on offer as prize money for the championship. It is a tournament not to be missed. All right, this is a fact from the Australian Open this year.

A game in progress at the Australian Open

But what really ticks me is how Melbourne embraces such big events with so many stakeholders at ease. Indeed such events are important anecdotes in the cultural history of city.’ Melbourne, where the world comes to play 'is the official one-liner that showcases the sporting vivacity of this great city.

Melbourne has installed some of the world's finest sports infrastructure and also produced some great sports personalities. It has a very high sporting culture. Australian Open is a high selling point of the city.

Apart from the sporting events, the business of running the whole show and providing a variety of local business prospects is simply great and attracting attention from an ever growing population from different parts of the world. Melbourne attracts lots of international visitors throughout the year and especially this time of the year is just wonderful.

In fact tourism is one of the largest foreign exchange earning industries of the country. The weather is highly accommodating with bright sunny days to a maximum high temperature ranging from 25 -330 Celsius on an average. It is perfect for outdoors, not too hot and cold.

The scheduling of Australian open coincides with the best time of the year to visit Australia. The sporting infrastructures on offer for the coveted trophy are one of the finest in the world. The event is held in two sporting and entertainment arenas popularly known as Rod Laver arena and Vodafone arena.

Both the venues are world class and possess certain unique features. They are easily accessible by public transport and actually they are in the walkable distance from the city centre. The distance to the venue from the CBD is not more than a kilometre.
(See map: Link here )

The Rod Laver arena was constructed in 1988 and previously known as Centre court. But it was named after the Australian Tennis legend Rod Laver who won two Grand Slams in 1962 and 1969. It is a multi-use venue capable of hosting a wide range of sports and entertainment events, from Grand Slam tennis matches to international rock stars, and motorbike super-cross action to conferences, dinners and classical performances. It has a sitting capacity of 15,000 people and boasts of a moveable roof and a plexicushion tennis court.

The moveable roof is formed by two rolling sections, each spanning the court with arched trusses that gives the Arena its distinctive image. The roof takes just 30 minutes to open or close, ensuring that tennis can be played despite Melbourne’s often inclement weather and the venue can be used throughout the year for other events.

A plexicushion floor which is known as Australian Open True Blue provides the flexibility of transforming the floor from sports mode to concert mode alternatively and provides host of other benefits associated with Australia's often inclement weather conditions. But mixed reactions spurt from many Australian associated with the venue.

For not less than 20 years in the Australian Open history, the tennis court was floored with the green coloured Rebound Ace. The new Plexicushion is prepared in California and a typical US Open blue. The Rod Laver Arena is a big tourist’s draw throughout the year. It attracts more than 1.5 million tourists annually. As stated; Rod Laver arena is also very high on the international entertainment schedules.

A large number of international concerts are on the calendar of its events. Come February, March and April, many renowned international acts are scheduled to perform here. Some of the events include performances by Hillary Duff on 3rd February, Iron Maiden on 6 and 7 February, Ragamuffin on 12 February, Backstreet Boys, 23rd February, Santana, 26 February, Rod Stewart, 28 February, Kelly Clarkson,4 March, The Chemical brothers on 5 March, Maroon 5, March 30, Celine Dion,1 st April, Foo Fighters, 25 April and so on.

Australian Open at Vodafone arena

The whole calendar year is earmarked with so many events. Of course, this indicates a lot business and international engagement for the city. The city is very hip and happening.

Another equally majestic venue for the championship is the Vodaphone arena. It is located quite close to the Rod Laver arena. But it has its very own distinctive features. This area is also built for multi use. Constructed in 2000; Vodaphone area offers unparalleled flexibility for sporting events, functions and entertainments.

The arena boasts both a retractable roof and retractable, raiseable and removable seating. At the touch of a button the roof can open to transform the indoor Arena within ten minutes into an outdoor venue. To complete the transformation, seating can be raised to reveal the cycling track.

It offers an ICU accredited 250 metre cycling track, a Plexicushion tennis court used predominantly for the Australian Open Grand Slam Tennis Championship, concert quality acoustics, and innovative seating design that ensures spectators are close to the action at all times. The cycling tract was designed by Ron Web, an Australian and one of the only two experts in the world, it is believed.

The track comprises 56 kilometres of Baltic pine strips secured with 360,000 nails. The 7 metre wide track features a bank incline of 42 degrees and is designed to produce fast times and exciting racing. The total area of Vodafone Arena is 13,100 square metres, with a floor space of 2,760 square metres. It has a sitting capacity of 10,500 people. It is a fully wheel chair accessible venue.

Besides these two centre courts, there are so many tennis courts in the complex which provides lots of opportunities to witness the games of many international players during the championship. The ticket prices are much reasonable to these venues.

You just can roam around inside and see as many matches as possible. During the Australian Open championship, the whole city is entirely in a festive mood and for all the business establishments especially the tourism, retailing and hospitality industry, it is a great opportunity to maximise their earnings.

Personally I feel the idea of having multipurpose sporting and entertainment complex is technically and financially very sound. It’s true, the initial investment will be very high but it has its own benefits which can enhance its business prospects. At least it can work out its maintenance cost throughout the year.

Stadiums lying idle in the sporting off seasons are nothing new in many parts of the world and our Khuman Lampak sports complex is not an exception. But it is making a difference here in Melbourne. It is not something which we should shy away in learning.

I have been thinking this idea for quite some time that our state has a very unique culture which is already known to many parts of the world but could not get benefited even a pie. We have many indigenous games and colourful folk and classical dances.

Sporting culture is also one of the finest in the country and of course we are also the birth place of Polo. Its natural beauty is an added attraction. We can get a lot of benefits by finding a practical approach to promote these areas in which we have an innate strength.

For the polarized world today, culture, sports and Tourism speaks more volumes than any areas of similar strength. I know we are entangled in a web of problems which we don’t have a solution in the near future.

But who is going to solve our problems? Ourselves or Government at the centre? Why don't we demand for the facilities which we need the most instead of fighting for the petty political gains?

Small state does not mean that our thinking should also be small and narrow. I know many people will feel writing something after seeing something bright abroad will not make any difference.

Manipur has its own unique problems. That’s a limiting factor in the dissemination of ideas and thoughts. Well, too much of writing to chew may not be meaningful to many. Australian Open website provides more avenues just than the game. Explore the site yourself. Till then.

Check out the gallery on "Australian Open Tennis Championship 2008." here.

* Chingshang, a Graduate student at University of Melbourne, contributes regularly to e-pao.net. The writer can be contacted at rockm(at)rediffmail(dot)com . This article was webcasted on January 17th 2008.

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