Melbourne Park to be divided into three zones to ensure fan safety at Australian Open

Melbourne Park will be split up into three different precincts in order to ensure the safety of fans at next month’s Australian Open.

Tennis Australian Chief Executive, Craig Tiley yesterday told Nine News Melbourne “people will see when they come on-site that it'll be a very different experience.

"The site will be divided up into three zones, but the entertainment and the experience that you get in each zone will be special.

"It'll be like nothing we've had before - there will be a Margaret Court Arena zone, a Rod Laver Arena zone and a John Cain Arena zone. You'll be able to see matches on outside courts, matches in the stadium with the best players in the world, as well as enjoying premium food and hospitality.

"That's designed so if we have to get to a contact tracing point we're able to do it very quickly with smaller numbers."

With Melbourne Park allowed to only operate at 25% capacity, Tiley advised that that fans buying a ticket to any of the three zones will be restricted to that zone for the entire day's play, adding “you'll buy a ticket for the MCA zone or the Rod Laver Arena zone or the JCA zone and you'll be guaranteed to have a seat in a stadium.

"If you're in certain zones you'll get access to outside courts as well where you will have a seat reserved. We've just replicated it three times and in that way we don't have massive crowds just in one precinct."

He did not repeat his comments last month of wanting the venue to allow more than a quarter of the usual number of attendees.

Announcing that the tournament would start on 8th February despite quarantined players having to leave a Melbourne hotel, Tiley praised for the collaboration between the Victorian Government, Quarantine Victoria and the Australian Open team for putting together a plan that "seemed logistically unfathomable".

He went to on to explain that several contingencies were in place for players’ quarantine, adding “all along we've said we need to ensure the safety of not only the fans, but the community, as well as the players, and we believe we have the processes in place to ensure that is the case."

Risks associated with having fans in attendance at recent sporting fixtures have been brought into focus yesterday with Victorian Government revealing that a man infected with Coronavirus attended day two of the Boxing Day Test at the MCG.

Images: Margaret Court Arena (top) and Craig Tiley (below).