John Cain Arena

John Cain Arena is a multi-purpose sports and entertainment arena located within Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is the second-largest venue and show court for the Australian Open, the first Grand Slam professional tennis tournament held each calendar year. The arena also hosts various other sporting and entertainment events throughout the year.

The arena has sometimes been dubbed "The People's Court" during Australian Open matches, owing to its accessibility for Australian Open patrons with a ground pass (i.e. the cheapest form of ticketing available) and the close proximity of spectators to the players, with the arena developing a reputation for being an incredibly passionate venue with a terrific atmosphere, particularly when Australians are playing on the court.

Construction commenced in the late 1990s, and was completed in 2000. The arena features a cycling track, which is covered over with seating for court events. The tennis court is a GreenSet surface (between 2008 and 2019 the surface was Plexicushion) and the roof is retractable, making it one of the few venues where tennis can be played during rain.

The venue is able to hold a maximum spectator capacity of 11,000 for events such as music concerts where general floor seating or standing room is available. For basketball, netball and tennis the capacity is 10,500. When the velodrome is in use the northern and southern banks of seats, which cover the turns of the velodrome, are raised to reveal the track while the floor seating is removed leaving a reduced capacity of 4,500.

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 included 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 announced their intentions to move from the arena to the smaller capacity Margaret Court Arena (MCA) from 2015. However, Melbourne United abandoned their move to MCA after the 2015–16 NBL season and continue to play their games at John Cain Arena, while the Vixens will continue to split their games between John Cain and Margaret Court Arenas, with John Cain used for games expected to attract a larger crowd.

During construction, the project was referred to as the Melbourne Park Multi-Purpose Venue. When it opened in 2000, a sponsor was immediately assigned naming rights and it became known as the Vodafone Arena. This arrangement lasted for eight years. On 12 May 2008, it was announced that its name would change to Hisense Arena in a multimillion-dollar deal that was originally supposed to last six years. Meanwhile, temporarily throughout the 2006 Commonwealth Games, the Hisense Arena reverted to being called "Multi Purpose Venue" for the duration of the sporting event. In 2014 the naming contract with the multinational Hisense was extended for a further three years. Despite the contract ending at the conclusion of 2017, Hisense Arena remained the name of the venue for several more months, effectively for free.

In August 2018, Tennis Australia announced it had bought the naming rights and had elected to call it Melbourne Arena, saying it preferred a non-commercial title "iconic with the city". The non-corporate name was to be in effect for five years, though the Victorian Government and Tennis Australia did not rule out extending the arena's name beyond that period.

On 3 February 2020, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews announced that the arena would be renamed "John Cain Arena" in honour of John Cain Jr., the late State Premier of Victoria, who is regarded as a critical figure in keeping the Australian Open in Melbourne in the mid-1980s. The new name came into effect in December 2020.