Melbourne wins gold as Australia’s sporting capital

Melbourne wins gold as Australia’s sporting capital

Tourism Victoria 18 June 2010

From events such as the Australian Open tennis championships in January to the Boxing Day Test cricket match in December, Melbourne lives and breathes sporting achievement.

The city's international status was recognised in November last year when Melbourne was named the Best Sports City in the world at the SportBusiness Sports Event Management Awards in London. Melbourne won the award for its year-round calendar of major events, unrivalled sporting precinct and infrastructure, strong event attendances and established events industry.

Apart from the tennis and the cricket, visitors to Melbourne can experience the Formula 1 Grand Prix action at Albert Park, the Australian 500cc Motorcycle Championship at Phillip Island or the world famous Melbourne Cup horse race during the Spring Racing Carnival.

From March to September, thousands of people don team colours and head to the Melbourne Cricket Ground or Etihad Stadium to attend Australian Rules football matches. There is soccer, basketball, hockey, netball, swimming, surfing at the famous Bells Beach and much more.

The Australian Open Tennis is the biggest sporting event held anywhere in the world during the month of January and is the largest annual event in the Southern Hemisphere. More than 600,000 people attended the 2010 Australian Open, generating more than AUD$160 million for the Victorian economy.

Each March, around 300,000 people descend on Melbourne to watch 22 of the world's fastest drivers race around Albert Park in the Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix, which was this year won by British champion Jensen Button.

A century and a half after the first race was run, the Victoria Racing Club is celebrating the 150th running of Australia's most famous horse race, the Melbourne Cup, which will be held on Tuesday 2 November.

Widely known as "The Race that Stops a Nation", the Melbourne Cup started from humble beginnings in 1861 and rose to become an international phenomenon. More than 100,000 people attend the Melbourne Cup each year, which is as well known for its stylish trackside fashion as it is for the horses.

The 2010 Emirates Melbourne Cup offers record prize money of AUD$6 million to retain its place as the richest handicap race in the world.

Also this year, Victoria will host the world's best road cyclists during the 2010 UCI Road World Championships being held in Melbourne and Geelong.

The five-day event, starting in September, is a major coup for Victoria and will feature Victoria's champion cyclist Cadel Evans, and fellow Australians Stuart O'Grady and Robbie McEwen, among a field of 1200 riders from 60 countries. It is only the sixth time the race has been hosted outside Europe and will shine an international spotlight on the state, with an anticipated global television audience of 400 million.

Victoria's championship golf courses have hosted the likes of Greg Norman, Robert Allenby and Tiger Woods. Next year, the world's best golfers will descend on Melbourne when the city hosts the Presidents Cup 2011 at the renowned Royal Melbourne Golf Club. Running from November 14 to 20, the event will reunite golf legends Fred Couples and Greg Norman, who competed against each other at Royal Melbourne at the same tournament in 1998, and will showcase Victoria's world-class golfing opportunities.

No other city on earth boasts as many Top 100 golf courses that visitors can play as Melbourne, and the city's famous "Sandbelt" region offers the game's rarest topography - sandy parkland that consistently produces some of the world's finest golf terrain.

Melbourne continues to upgrade and expand its world-class sporting facilities - a commitment recognised in April this year when the city won yet another sporting industry honour, being named as the world's "Ultimate Sports City" at the SportAccord Convention in Dubai.

Major facilities within six kilometres of the city centre include: the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG); Etihad Stadium; Melbourne and Olympic Park which includes Rod Laver Arena, Hisense Arena, the new Rectangular Stadium and Olympic Park; Flemington Race Course; Melbourne Sports & Aquatic Centre (MSAC); and the Albert Park Grand Prix Track.

The $267.5 million Melbourne Rectangular Stadium (branded AAMI Park) opened this month and will accommodate more than 30,000 fans at soccer, rugby league and rugby union matches.

The Victorian Government is also investing $363 million in the Melbourne and Olympic Park precinct, home of the Australian Open tennis, which soon will have three retractable roof stadiums and 21 new tennis courts.

The city also boasts the largest ice-skating facility in the Southern Hemisphere with the opening this year of the new $58 million Icehouse, located in Melbourne's Docklands precinct. Home to the Olympic Winter Institute of Australia, the Icehouse features two Olympic-sized ice rinks, function spaces and has an environmental rating equivalent to a ‘5-Star Green Star' rating.

In 1991, the Victorian Government established the Victorian Major Events Company (VMEC) as part of an initiative to attract international cultural and sporting events to the state. As well as putting Melbourne and Victoria on the world stage, these events help to raise Victoria's international profile and have a positive financial impact on the state.


For media enquiries contact Amy Skelding, Lucy Pennington, Debbie Hindle askelding@bgb.co.uk / lpennington@bgb.co.uk / dhindle@bgb.co.uk 0207 902 2990

Corporate website: www.tourismvictoria.com.au
Consumer website: www.visitmelbourne.com/uk

 

 

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