Right now, if you open Google Maps on your phone and have a look at where Margaret Court Arena used to be, you’ll find Evonne Goolagong Arena instead.
It’s being widely speculated upon that Google has gone and renamed the arena themselves, following weeks of Margaret Court‘s rampantly homophobic views dominating the media cycle.
18-time Grand Slam winner Martina Navratilova was the one who first suggested it be renamed after Goolagong – another Aussie tennis legend – and the idea has picked up steam.
Margaret Court Arena still appears if you search for it by name, and it’s not working on desktop, but if you search for the Evonne Goolagong Arena you arrive squarely at the MCA. Something is afoot.
Even just typing in Evonne Goolagong Arena into Google Maps gets you MCA pic.twitter.com/hDJxVh1Iov
— Andrew Brown (@AndrewBrownAU) June 8, 2017
We’ve reached out to Google, but tbqh it seems highly unlikely the search giant would want to be the driving force behind this change, especially before Tennis Australia had given it the all-clear.
It’s potentially the result of a bunch of people spamming the ‘report a mistake’ feature to trick Google into renaming the court, to which we say… hell yeah.
We’ll update as and when.
UPDATE at 2:10pm.
“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,” the spokesperson said.“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.”
RIP Evonne Goolagong Arena.
Photo: Google Maps.
