UPDATE: It appears the renaming of Margaret Court Arena in Google Maps is an error. In a statement to Crave Australia, a Google spokesperson says:
“The various types of data found in Google Maps come from a wide range of sources, including third-party providers, public sources, and user contributions. Overall, this provides a very comprehensive and up-to-date map experience, but we recognise that there may be occasional inaccuracies that could arise from any of those sources. Users who see an error or missing place on Google Maps can use the ‘Report a Problem’ tool, found at the bottom right corner of the map.”
ORIGINAL STORY: Google has oh-so-quietly renamed Melbourne’s Margaret Court Arena following homophobic comments made by its namesake, tennis veteran Margaret Court.
Google Maps is currently displaying Margaret Court Arena as ‘Evonne Goolagong Arena’ after another tennis veteran, Evonne Goolagong Cawley — a seven-time Grand Slam champion who was the first Aboriginal player to become world number one.
If you search the venue’s original name it still shows up as Margaret Court Arena, but if you close the search its name reverts to ‘Evonne Goolagong Arena’.
Here’s proof:
The change was previously suggested by the likes of tennis player Martina Navratilova and singer-songwriter Tina Arena (who didn’t want it renamed ‘Tina Arena Arena’, unfortunately).
74-year-old Margaret Court was criticised last month for comments she made about Aussie airline Qantas supporting same-sex marriage, about tennis being “full of lesbians” and about “gay lobbyists” supposedly trying to turn children into homosexuals and transgender people.
Margaret Court Arena was originally named Show Court One when it opened back in 1988, and was later renamed after Court in 2003. Its current operators have distanced themselves from Court’s recent remarks.
