Sydney bids for Australian Open hosting rights

Shanghai and Dubai also in the running for 2017 slot

SYDNEY: Sydney is bidding to take the Australian Open tennis away from its long-time Melbourne home, reports said on Saturday. Melbourne has staged the year’s opening Grand Slam at its Melbourne Park complex since 1988 and drew a record number of 605,735 fans to the fortnight tournament last January.

But Melbourne is being challenged for its Grand Slam status by Shanghai, Dubai and now Sydney when its contract expires in 2016. The Sydney Morning Herald said Sydney’s pitch for the Open tournament included a plan to build a multi-million-dollar stadium at an inner-city harbour site.

Events NSW’s chief executive Geoff Parmenter has confirmed Sydney’s interest in the event, which is worth more than $69 million to the economy of the state of Victoria. “The Australian Open tennis is arguably the best event in Australia. I think any events company in the country would be negligent if they didn’t have it somewhere on their Radar,” Parmenter told the Herald.  “The Glebe Island site is the subject of quite a bit of interest because it is pretty much the last clear piece of prime (Sydney) harbour side real estate left.” Parmenter denied there had been a formal application to host the Australian Open, but he confirmed that discussions had been held with Tennis Australia about the future of the tournament beyond 2016.