The Australian Open is Melbourne. Not Sydney. Not Dubai. Not Shanghai.
Taking the Open out of Melbourne would be like taking the beach out of the Gold Coast, the Harbour Bridge out of Sydney or the Colletto Fava bunny out of the northern Piedmont region in Italy. It would leave a gaping hole.
In a city renowned for its major international events, it would be hard to argue one captures the locals’ imagination more than the Australian Open.
Yet the suggestion over the weekend was that the Open was in sights of interstate and international rivals. And it is a suggestion that has been lingering for some time now.
Melbourne, thankfully, is locked in as host until 2016. Whilst branching out the grand slam format into tennis’ new pot of gold (Asia and the Middle East) would certainly be fair, the sacredness of having four mountains to climb to achieve the sport’s ultimate goal is not something to be done away with quickly. If ever.
The other way to embrace Asia would be to do away with a current grand slam and replace it with a Dubai, Abu Dhabi or Shanghai-based Open. Australia – a puny little market that is no longer a world power in the game – is no doubt vulnerable.
It puts tennis in somewhat of an ethical quandary. The Australian Open has been around since forever. The crowds are constantly increasing. The government is fully behind it (and wants to continue to build up Melbourne Park.)
But will it be enough?
The scale of this debate shows how truly out of their depth Sydney is by throwing their hat into the ring. If tennis were to turn their back on Melbourne, they would have to turn their back on Australia altogether – Sydney can’t offer anything Melbourne can’t.
And I mean anything. Perhaps the most amusing part of the weekend's news was the fact the New South Wales government was prepared to build “a stadium” in order to snare the Open. In case you haven’t noticed, you need a whole bloody park to host a tennis event of that scale.
I’m tempted to remind Sydneysiders that they had an Olympics only eight years ago, which landed them a “stadium” and, conveniently, a tennis centre. My how little foresight they must have…
But I digress. These rants from north of the border are like a cry for attention to us so-called “Mexicans.” It’s almost sad, really.
In fact, just two days after the papers ran riot with this story, a peculiar new story came out of Sydney’s own FFA. It was enough to make any musings about New South Wales snaring a major event instantly irrelevant.
The Melbourne Cricket Ground has been chosen to host the final match in our World Cup qualifying campaign against Japan.
And this just two years after Sydney’s Daily Telegaph had this to say when then-premier Morris Iemma announced a venue deal with the FFA: “Iemma was gloating that Sydney – and not Melbourne – would again stage the final round World Cup qualifier in 2009.”
Tough break, Sydney. Don’t take it too hard. Oh, wait, that is word for word what Morris Iemma said two years ago.
Oops. My bad.
Okay, fair enough, Sydney didn’t exactly get dudded by the FFA’s arrangements. Two of the four home qualifiers will be in the Harbour City, and the Cup spot-clinching match may end up being one of those two and not the one in Melbourne.
But the NSW government – how's that recession coming along? – back flip shows that when it comes to these sorts of things, Sydney is all talk, no action.
Melbourne is major events. Not Sydney.
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