This year we are already seeing massive crowds at the Australian Open, with the largest Qualifying – excuse me – Opening Week – attendance on record, and the first couple of days exceeding 100,000 attendees across Melbourne Park. The venue is probably nearing its maximum safe capacity, and there may be other options nearby.
Adam White (SEN journo) opined on twitter that its time to consider Aami Park as a venue for the Open, and was derisively shut down by football fans, who point out that two teams use the venue through this period, and as such the idea of using Aami Park for anything tennis was a non starter. Its important to note that no one in Tennis has suggested this.
Image: https://ausopen.com/articles/news/ao-2026-your-guide-worlds-melbourne-park
The Australian Open is a behemoth, last year it drew 1,218,831 through the gate over the three weeks of the Open, and this year it appears will be even bigger than last year. Organisers say attendance over the last ten years is more than 7.5m.
The combined total 2024-25 attendance of Aleague sides at Aami Park was 355,000.
The record day attendance at the Open of more than 97,000 has been beaten twice in the first two days of the main draw already in 2026 – with both days topping 100,000.
Last years Open was reported to have injected $424.4 million into the Melbourne economy, and more than $3.46 billion for Victoria over the past 10 years. 62.7 per cent of all Australian Open attendees were from Melbourne, 19 per cent from interstate, 10.3 per cent from intrastate and 8 per cent from overseas.
The first real issue is practicality. Using a football stadium for tennis is unprecedented in Australia, however the Miami Open is held inside an NFL stadium where the field itself serves as center court, using a modified, 13,800-seat configuration with temporary grandstands constructed on the playing surface, placing the court roughly between the two 30-yard lines.
But frankly, it just looks weird.
This in itself is an issue, Australian stadiums have a tendency to use real grass, not artificial turf, which can be very badly damaged by stadium infrastructure – venues like Marvel Stadium and Accor Stadium which have a theoretical ability to move grandstands, rarely do so, if ever these days, due to the damage it does to the field, and everyone has seen the damage event staging has done to major grassed venues across the country. And this leads us to football.
Football as a community already feel that they are second class citizens when it comes to infrastructure use and spending, being booted out of their home venue mid season is unlikely to lead to an increase in positive sentiment.
Due to the – and I say this delicately – more popular (in Australia, at the professional level) sports being in recess over the summer, and crickets major events being mostly done by the time the Open starts, concerts and the like tend to be staged at major venues across the country. This year Ed Sheeran is touring Optus Stadium, Accor Stadium, Marvel Stadium, Adelaide Oval and Suncorp Stadium. The turf takes some time to recover or be replaced after these events and leaves football at some venues with a poor playing and viewing surface.
Constructing a temporary surface and stands at Aami Park, dismantling and allowing for turf recovery would take more than a month out of an Aleague season, with little in the way of practical venues in Melbourne for an Aleague side to utilise.
While Victory have used Marvel in the past, they would be reluctant to do so now, and the MCG is simply too large for any practical Aleague match. South Melbourne are unlikely to allow an Aleague side to use Lakeside, and it is too small for Victory in any case. Christ knows whats going on at Tarneit these days. While a match or two might be hosted in regional Victoria – matches have been played at both GMBHA Stadium and Mars Stadium – whatever happens is unlikely to calm the disquiet of football fans, media pundits and administrators.
Objectors on twitter have noted that stadium was built for football – thats simply not true, Victory may have insisted on capacity, but the Storm (Aami Park replaced their home ground at Olympic Park), and a hoped for Super Rugby license were also very much part of that equation. The stadium has also been home to AFL club Melbourne.
Could this be a catalyst for finally delivering that boutique 10-15,000 seat stadium that football fans seem to crave?
Its worth noting that some of these same arguments could be applied to the MCG – where there are other options for matches, including Marvel Stadium and the home of Cricket Victoria (as well as GMBHA Stadium) – there are only Shield or state ODI matches scheduled between now and March – and it is just a short walk across the bridge from the venue. If the Miami Open can stick a temporary tennis stadium inside a 65,000 seat NFL stadium, then Victoria could easily accommodate the same at the MCG.
If we are going to go down the temporary stand/venue route then surely we can just set up on Yarra Park or Gocshs Paddock, or Olympic Park. That might excite the ‘Save the Parklands’ types though.
On the whole, I expect any move or expansion outside the Melbourne Park precinct to be unlikely in the short term, but money means a lot these days and the Open is big money for the state, and for Tennis. I just cant see the necessity of it with so much available parkland nearby that would serve just as well without causing inconvenience.
Note: Melbourne Park was upgraded at a cost of $972 million from 2010-2022. The Victorian Government has invested almost $1 billion into infrastructure upgrades to establish Melbourne and Olympic Parks as one of the best sport and entertainment precincts in the world. It is owned and operated by the Melbourne & Olympic Parks Trust (which also oversees Aami Park).
References
- AO delivers record $565.8 million in economic benefits to Victoria
- For the second time in tournament history (after yesterday), over 100,000 fans have attended a day at the Australian Open.
- Ultimate Aleague – 2025-26 Attendances
- Wikipedia – Hard Rock Stadium
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