KEY POINTS:
New Year roads have led to what used to be called the Stanley St tennis courts and along the way lies the most tragic sight in Auckland sport.
What is now the ASB Tennis Centre, at the foot of Parnell, has played host to tennis and beach volleyball tournaments, while just a decent lob away lies the decaying mess that was once Carlaw Park.
A plea to whoever is responsible - it's time the old league ground and those passing by with fond memories are put out of their miseries.
Carlaw Park ranks among the worst of city eyesores and those eyes might be rubbed red through tears.
Unlike the old soccer home of Newmarket Park, which could slide anonymously away, Carlaw Park is highly visible when you motor over the hill from the city centre.
The ground resembles a giant weed while the battered stands reek of inner-city slum. It is a shock to see the state of the place and, even if we can't have world class sports facilities in this city, there's no need to throw the past in our face quite like that.
Have a heart. Find a bulldozer.
Australia has long put the bulldozers and builders to good use in constructing sports stadiums. Its foresight and planning was again in evidence at the Australian Tennis Open in Melbourne.
You never know quite what to expect weatherwise in Australia's sporting capital. On arriving there last year for the Kiwis' Tri-Series rugby league clash against Australia, it was so hot you would have sworn the city was being blasted by a giant hair dryer. The next day, after stepping out of the hotel lobby, a chill ripped through the T-shirt and clothing reinforcements were required.
The Open has taken the weather out of the equation. Two decades ago, Australian tennis put a roof over the Rod Laver Arena and installed another when the complex was upgraded. As the weather threatened over the weekend, the roof was closed and the action continued.
Australia led the tennis world with its ceiling and Wimbledon will only catch up in two years' time, when the centre court lid will be completed.
Hopefully, Auckland will get it right one day when it comes to sports stadiums. We've got to keep living in hope.
Priority one is a world class football stadium. Whenever this debate surfaces, and it still has a way to go, two words spring to mind. Suncorp Stadium.
Anyone who has witnessed a rugby or league match at Brisbane's brilliant ground will know the score. Aucklanders - New Zealanders - are missing out on the true modern experience of watching live sport. It sends chills up the spine just to sit down at Suncorp and anticipate a match. The game itself leaps at you with a heart-racing magic. By comparison, a football game at Eden Park is two dimensional and remote.
Our city is being deprived of a great pleasure. Never mind. No doubt there is an advertising expert who could convince us otherwise with a nifty 30-second splash on TV.
Dotted among the TV sport of recent days have been promotions for coverage of the Super 14. The images of players flash by at high speed and are a bit hard to pick out, but you would swear they include the likes of Joe Rokocoko, Piri Weepu and Jason Eaton.
Disingenuous advertising, surely. Those lads will be tucked up in Graham Henry's back pocket for the first seven rounds of the Super 14.
Manchester led the way in this dubious art in 2002, when they splashed pictures of Jonah Lomu around the city even though he wasn't within cooee of playing in the Commonwealth Games sevens tournament. At least Manchester, in its defence, may have been misinformed.
* Tennis technology is a smash hit.
It runs smoothly and enhances the sport. It's almost a sport within a sport, as you watch the graphic version of events and quietly wager to yourself whether the ball was in or out, whether the challenger was right or wrong.
It's the speed at which the technology comes into play and the clarity of the graphics which are so impressive. If only rugby and league could sort out their video debates in a similar time zone, although they face trickier obstacles. Still, their video replay referees could be more decisive.
Martina Hingis was so far wrong with one of her challenges at the Australian Open, during her blitzing of Japan's Aiko Nakamura on Saturday, that she almost turned red with embarrassment.
While the number of permitted challenges against calls made by the courtside officials is limited, the system at least gives players a steam-release valve, the feeling that not everything might be going against them.
On the subject of the 26-year-old Hingis, it would be a great moment for tennis if she could claim her fourth Australian Open title, her sixth Grand Slam trophy and first since coming out of retirement.
Opponents such as Lindsay Davenport used to refer to the Swiss star as the "maestro". Hingis plays with a guile and instinct that is a cut above the rest.
* Chelsea, with a poor-value defence in their squillion-pound team, were beaten by two fabulous Liverpool goals in another signal their English premiership title race with Manchester United has turned into a thriller, with the champions now the chasers. Chelsea, who are seeking a third straight title, have been hit by innuendo and strife around the relationship between rich Russian owner Roman Abramovich and suave manager Jose Mourhino. A club built on roubles has turned to rubble, some say. The injury to English central defender John Terry has been disastrous for Chelsea but anything stopping them running away with the title again is a blessing for most premiership fans.
