Sidelights of Australian Open, Melbourne |
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By: Chingshang * |
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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.
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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