The end of Burswood Dome

Perth's Burswood Dome will be demolished with work expected to begin in a matter of weeks. The 13,600-seat indoor venue is no longer required following the opening of Perth Arena.

Since its opening 1988, the Burswood Dome, which sits alongside Crown Perth (formerly the Burswood Entertainment Complex), has held many major concerts and sporting events including the annual Hopman Cup. It was also the only major indoor venue following the closure of the Perth Entertainment Centre.

The first concert at the Dome was Mick Jagger in 1988 and the last concert was the Beach Boys in September last year. Other big names to perform include Michael Jackson, AC/DC, Kylie Minogue, Britney Spears, Justin Bieber, Metallica and Rihanna. As well as tennis, it has also played host to basketball while it was also once mooted as a future home for Perth Glory.

The new world-class 14-500-seat Perth Arena opened in November 2012 and is the new home of the Hopman Cup, Perth Wildcats and concerts. That sealed the Dome's fate with the aging venue and its pressurised roof now surplus to requirements and has proved too expensive to maintain.

It will be demolished to make way for more than 1,000 car parks at Crown Perth. Since  James Packer took over the Burswood venue in 2004, annual visits to the entertainment complex have nearly doubled to eight million and that figure is expected to grow to 10 million within the next few years.

Construction of Perth's new outdoor sports stadium is due to start in the coming months next door on the current site of the golf course.