Limited serving for fans
Oz Open forced to restrict off-court activities
RESTRICTIONS on fan engagement activities that have grown Australian Open audiences will have a financial impact on a tournament already dealing with a significant hit from COVID-19.
Tennis Australia has worked hard over the past decade to grow the appeal of the Australian Open through the introduction of separate concert and culinary areas, among other dedicated fan events.
In effect, it has become a grand slam tournament wrapped into a fortnight-long festival, which stretches from Federation Square to the Richmond train station.
But social distancing and sanitary obligations caused by the pandemic will affect this activity in February, tournament director Craig Tiley said, which will reduce the Open’s earning potential for 2021.
Tennis Australia is also in talks with the Victorian government over crowds, with hopes it can host at least 50 per cent of the more than 800,000 who attended this year.
“We are an event where a lot of our partners are spending money on activations as part of their outlay and activations are going to be restricted or limited,” Tiley said.
“It is going to be in double digits (the) impairment and then ticket sales are going to be 50 per cent less. We may get to have more fans. But the broadcasters, for the most part, hold.”
Tennis Australia has agreed to a one-year discount on its broadcast contract with Channel 9. The reported concession is 10 per cent on a contract worth $60m a year.
Despite the shock resignation of Nine’s chief executive Hugh Marks last month, Tiley is pleased with the negotiations with the main tennis broadcaster.
“There are two winners out of that – us and Nine. It didn’t play out in the media like all the others have,” he said.
“From the beginning we made an agreement that we were going to deal with it ourselves and it was going to be about the partnership, because we are in a long-term relationship with them. Now they are feeling really good, we are feeling really good, so we are going to massively grow.”
Tennis Australia will receive government assistance with the costs of the 2021 Australian Open because of the huge outlay related to quarantine and charter flights for up to 1100 people in January.
It will spend about $40m on biosecurity protocols and will be forced to borrow money to cover some or all of that sum.
Tennis Australia is likely to exhaust cash reserves of up to $80m, but Tiley is confident the organisation will be in good shape if the delayed 2021 Australian Open is conducted successfully.