The Adelaide International was held in January 2020, a 7-day tournament which replaced the existing 3 day, World Tennis Challenge.

iEDM were engaged by Tennis Australia to design and project manage the very first event under the new roof at War Memorial Drive, the first time this event was held in Adelaide.

The event site is on a tight footprint located on the edge of the CBD, on a busy thoroughfare. The tournament, unlike previous in the past, utilised not one, but three neighbouring venues, all with staggered hand over dates due to current and coinciding events during both bump in and during the event. This required high level planning and strong stakeholder communication.

iEDM were responsible for integrating the following services:

• Workshop and liaise with all internal departments of TA to develop an overlay
• Design and create an event plan
• Site and construction management
• Stakeholder management
• Infrastructure budget development and management
• Risk and Safety management
• Delivery planning and scheduling

With the construction of the new roof over War Memorial Drive courts finishing just days before the commencement of our bump in, there were various challenges faced during this time. Designing a centre court and other precincts in never used before spaces without having seen the structure were key hurdles. Utilising the existing buildings and grandstands to use as operational workspaces including media, offices and player service spaces required careful planning. Unfortunately, Adelaide endured a summer heat of multiple 40 plus degree days in a row the week leading up to Christmas which was disastrously worsened by the Bushfires that affected the region. These factors delayed the installation of the large corporate structures and screens, however all contractors achieved full installation to continue and complete the event build.

One of the key objectives was to minimise any lasting impact to the existing grass tennis courts, this was done through extensive planning and communication with all parties who are very satisfied post event.

The scope of the works required grew significantly from the time of iEDM’s engagement in July 2019 through to the event, therefore the budget management was crucial. Flexibility and innovation were required with new and unique factors that arose close to the event due to the busy International Tennis schedule.

The site layout cohesion between Centre Court , the activation spaces including ‘The Lawn’ bar with entertainment, F&B outlets, the Kids Zone while also highlighting the players on Show Court was well presented and very well received by the attendees.

The event was an immense success, particularly for the 120 players who were incredibly impressed by the whole experience, overall there were 46, 048 people that attended the event, which was double the initial goal for the campaign.

‍

‍