Melbourne Park Multi-Purpose Venue
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Arena in use during the 2016 Australian Open
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| Former names | Vodafone Arena (until 2008) |
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| Location | Melbourne, Victoria |
| Coordinates | 37°49′22″S 144°58′54″E / 37.82278°S 144.98167°ECoordinates: 37°49′22″S 144°58′54″E / 37.82278°S 144.98167°E |
| Owner | Melbourne & Olympic Parks |
| Operator | Melbourne & Olympic Parks |
| Capacity | 11,000 (concert) 10,500 (basketball / netball) 9,500 (tennis) 4,500 (Track cycling) |
| Construction | |
| Broke ground | 1999 |
| Opened | 2000 |
| Construction cost | A$ 65 million |
| Architect | Peddle Thorp |
| Tenants | |
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Melbourne United (NBL) (2000–2002, 2012–present) Australian Open (Tennis) (2001–present) South Dragons (NBL) (2006–2009) Melbourne Vixens (ANZ) (2008–2016), (NNL) (2017–) Collingwood Magpies Netball (NNL) (2017–) 2004 UCI Track Cycling World Championships 2006 Commonwealth Games 2012 UCI Track Cycling World Championships |
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The Melbourne Park Multi-Purpose Venue, currently also known by its sponsorship name as Hisense Arena, is an Australian sports venue that is part of the National Tennis Centre at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Victoria.
Construction of the arena commenced in the late 1990s, and was completed in 2000. It was originally called the Multi-Purpose Venue, until the naming rights were sold to Vodafone. The arena features a cycling track, which is covered over with seating for court events. The tennis court is a Plexicushion surface and the roof is retractable, making it one of the few venues where tennis can be played during rain.
The arena is able to hold a maximum spectator capacity of 11,000 for events such as music concerts where general floor seating or standing room is available. For basketball and netball (with extra court side seating), capacity is 10,500 while for tennis (without the court side seating), capacity is 9,500. When the velodrome is in use the northern and southern banks of seats, which cover the turns of the velodrome, are raised to reveal the track while the floor seating is removed leaving a reduced capacity of 4,500.
The arena has been used for netball for Melbourne Phoenix and Melbourne Kestrels games in the Commonwealth Bank Trophy. Melbourne Phoenix and the Melbourne Kestrels played their last home game there before merging to become the Melbourne Vixens who used it for home games in the ANZ Championship until 2016 and will (from 2017) continue to use the arena in the new Suncorp Super Netball (SSN) league. New SSN team the Collingwood Magpies Netball will also call Hisense Arena home from 2017.
The largest netball attendance at the arena was on 20 November 2004 when 10,300 saw the Australian national team defeat New Zealand 53 to 51.
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