Melbourne Sports and Entertainment Centre

The Holden Centre is a sports administration and training facility located in the Melbourne Sports and Entertainment Precinct in Melbourne, Australia. The facility opened in 1956 as an aquatic centre for the 1956 Olympic Games. In 1983, the Olympic-sized pool was replaced with a parquetry floor and the facility became Melbourne's home to numerous basketball events until 1998, most notably as the home venue for several National Basketball League teams including the North Melbourne Giants and Melbourne Tigers. The venue served as Melbourne's primary indoor concert arena from 1984 to 1988, until the completion of the Rod Laver Arena.History1956 Olympic GamesKnown originally as the Swimming and Diving Stadium, it was built as an indoor aquatic centre for diving, swimming, water polo, and the swimming part of the modern pentathlon events for the 1956 Summer Olympics. It was the first fully indoor Olympic swimming venue in an Olympic Games and is the only major stadium structure from the 1956 Olympic Games with the facade intact. It is listed on the Victorian Heritage Register. The design of this building was the winner of one of three international competitions held in 1952 to provide stadia for the 1956 Olympic Games. Architects Kevin Borland, Peter McIntyre, John and Phyllis Murphy and their engineer Bill Irwin won the only one of these competitions to be consummated. Construction by McDougall & Ireland, one of Melbourne's then-largest construction companies, began in October 1954 and was completed in 1956, just prior to the commencement of the Melbourne Olympic Games.