Hoops

What is the capacity of RAC (Perth) Arena?

It gets good crowds to sessions that feature a Federer or Williams, but pretty underwhelming otherwise. But I think the worldwide exposure thing is more the problem. I don't think too many people in other states tune in, let alone people in other countries.

"When I said matches that mean nothing I guess what I should have said was matches with meaningless results."

Yeah fair call. I remember watching it the first decade or so and it seemed massive, big crowds, entertaining contests, good media coverage. I guess the WA govt like it because it gives worldwide exposure, if that's so then I imagine they measure on how effective that is. Does it still get big crowds? I haven't watched it for quite a few years now.

Do Dazz or Perth world have lives lol. Non stop posting mostly insignificant garbage.

They obviously mean something for those players, ie preparing for the Aus Open. From an outsiders' view it seemed the Hopman Cup had a long run in the sun where it was popular both with attendance and TV viewers, but seems to have dwindled in recent years?

The Hopman Cup has had record attendances in recent years, since it relocated to PA from Burswood. However those record crowds were only due to Federer playing and the Aussie teams. Most of the other matches looked to be pretty small crowds but probably still a bit more than when they were at Burswood.

I dont have much interest in tennis generally but its clear this tournament doesnt mean an awful lot. When the players are often seen giggling and enjoying themselves its obviously not taken too seriously.

I suspect a lot of the top players that choose to play at the Hopman do so knowing that they can drop a game and play again the next day without impacting on rankings. Good preparation for the Aus Open.

If it dies off, then its probaby due for a new format as the Hopman was pretty boring imo.

"It quite literally is something, yes, but those top players play matches that mean nothing in the scheme of things"

They obviously mean something for those players, ie preparing for the Aus Open. From an outsiders' view it seemed the Hopman Cup had a long run in the sun where it was popular both with attendance and TV viewers, but seems to have dwindled in recent years?

Hopman*

Well unlike you Dazz I follow tennis and the Holman Cup is utterly meaningless and pointless as it isn't played for points ranking. Federer came this year due to a huge third party appearance fee being paid (what a joke).

Ankle good point about our slow stadium turnarounds in relation to the exorbitant wages paid to monkeys to do anything unskilled in this country.

A Federer quokka snap and Hopman Cup appearance that cost Tourism WA bucketloads.

to have an event that actually attracts top players is quite something.

Its because we can only afford to employ about 10 staff to complete pack down and setup based on Australian standard pay rates, plus weekend penalties, night penalties, superannuation, meal allowances, union dues, tax, uniforms etc etc.

At Staples centre they prob have 100 people on minimum US wage who can barely afford to live doing the job.

/Underwhelming

Yes this may be the last edition of the Hopman Cup but there is a replacement tournament being talked about - the atp cup, which is likely to feature matches in Perth.

Not an ATP or WTA event. Meaningless.

its a meaningless tournament that no one cares about so it will be good for basketball once it is history

"Must be so us Perthites can attend home opens on the weekend for a few weeks of the year instead of attending 11.30am games... "

FYP.

maybe they do like it but the point is that they don't have a choice in the matter and its weird that the arena is unusable for a month just because of 8 days of tennis

Maybe the Wildcats like it as it gives them home games to start and finish the season strongly.

nope I'm not buying it. they could do that anyway by staying on the east coast the week of the tennis. its nothing to do with the wildcats. look at the arena event calendar there is nothing else there for the whole month other than 8 days of tennis.

Must be so us Perthites can enjoy the beach on the weekend for a few weeks of the year instead of attending 11.30am games...

Every season it is a similar, excessively-long gap in the Cats home game schedule though. This question has come up before and I'm still none the wiser about it. Doesn't seem to be a problem switching between basketball, concerts, Disney shows, etc.

A - agree with you! The setup for concerts and basketball games can be converted within a day no problems. Tennis needing a whole month for essentially a one week use is bizarre. Has to be a good reason for it. Its always amazed me how much importance the government placed on such a minor tennis tournament when building the venue. Its like it was specifically built for tennis with other events to fill out the remaining 51 weeks of the year.

The 3 biggest Wildcats crowds have been 13,611 so I assume that's the max capacity in basketball mode

Austadiums isnt the most accurate source though. I could be wrong but I think in basketball configuration the areans capacity is approx a little more than 13,600. Ive been to games where there was over 13,500 and it looked packed.