Margaret Court Arena

Margaret Court Arena is Melbourne Park’s 7,500-capacity concert room, built around a tennis court and crowned by a retractable roof that opens or closes in five minutes. Its scale sits between club touring and the precinct’s larger arenas, while its programme spans pop, indie, rock, electronic, R&B, jazz and Latin shows alongside Australian Open tennis and court sports. The draw is weather-proof arena production in a comparatively compact seating bowl.

A show court remade for all seasons

The venue opened in 1988 as Show Court One, part of the purpose-built National Tennis Centre created for the Australian Open’s move from Kooyong to Melbourne Park. On 12 January 2003, the court took the Margaret Court Arena name. Its defining transformation began with a 2010 redevelopment plan: 1,500 extra seats, a retractable roof and facilities designed to turn the open-air court into an enclosed multi-purpose arena. Construction began in 2012, adding seating tiers from the existing concourse, back-of-house areas and a reshaped bowl; the completed building was handed over in November 2014 for the 2015 Australian Open. Capacity rose from 6,000 to 7,500, and a venue made for daytime tennis gained year-round concert capability.

The room for a concert

Concerts share the calendar with tennis, basketball, netball and special events, making this a practical stop for touring artists needing arena infrastructure at a contained scale. The layout centres on a 7,500-seat bowl beneath the roof, with video screens, corporate facilities and upgraded spectator amenities. Its in-house audio system was designed to integrate with touring PAs for extra concert coverage, a useful asset for amplified pop, rock, electronic and R&B bills. Seating shapes most configurations; floor access depends on each production’s event plan.