Melbourne Park Multi-Purpose Venue

The Melbourne Park Multi-Purpose Venue, currently also known by its sponsorship name as Hisense Arena, is an Australian sports venue that is part of the National Tennis Centre at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Victoria.

History
Construction of the arena, which has a maximum capacity of 11,000 people, commenced in the late 1990s, and was completed in 2000. It was originally called the Multi-Purpose Venue, until the naming rights were sold to Vodafone. The arena features a cycling track which is covered over with seating for court events. The tennis court is a Plexicushion surface and the roof is retractable, making it one of the few venues where tennis can be played during rain.

The South Dragons National Basketball League Australia (NBL) team had made the venue its home court. Formerly, the Victoria Titans and Melbourne Tigers used it as their home, until high rental prices forced the teams to find other venues. Until this move the venue was largely empty outside of the two weeks of the Australian Open tennis tournament. The Dragons withdrew from the competition after winning the championship in 2009, leaving the arena and the NBL. For the 2012-13 NBL season, the Tigers returned to the venue, playing 7 of their 13 home games at the arena.

The arena has been used for netball from 1997 for Melbourne Phoenix and Melbourne Kestrels games in the Commonwealth Bank Trophy. Melbourne Phoenix and the Melbourne Kestrels played their last home game there before aligning to become the Melbourne Vixens who now use it for home games in the ANZ Championship.

The largest netball attendance at the arena was set on 20 November 2004 when 10,300 saw the Australian national team defeat New Zealand 53 to 51. The largest basketball crowd was set on 18 October 2008 when 9,308 fans attended a local derby NBL game to see the Dragons defeat the Tigers 108 to 80.

Following the renovation of the Margaret Court Arena as part of a A$ 363 million upgrade to Melbourne Park in time for the 2015 Australian Open, which includes a retractable roof and an increase in capacity from 6,000 to 7,500, both Melbourne United (formerly the Melbourne Tigers) and the Melbourne Vixens have announced their intentions to move from the arena to the smaller capacity Margaret Court Arena from 2015.

Sponsorship names
On 12 May 2008, it was announced that as of 1 July 2008, the arena's sponsorship name would change from Vodafone Arena to Hisense Arena in a multi-million dollar six-year deal.

Cycling
In 2004 and 2012 the UCI Track Cycling World Championships were held at the venue.

Hisense Arena also hosted its first Track Grand Prix on 13 June 2015.