How Tennis Auckland spends money made by ASB Classic
Profits from tournaments help the sport as a whole, writes David Long.
As recently as 2010, the Auckland tennis tournaments were homely little events where the odd big name player would turn up.
Diehard tennis fans would come along to watch the vast array of no names in the draw, then have a chat with them in the cafe, while eating chips and corn dogs.
But they have been transformed into one of the country’s biggest sporting events that’s not just an Auckland thing any more.
It’s the place for the hoity-toity to be seen for the first two weeks of the year and some of the biggest sporting stars in the world come along, even if they have bad attitudes, play terribly and rubbish the place (yes, that’s referring to you Serena).
That charm has gone and been replaced with a more corporate feel, but one of the upsides of it, is that it brings in a lot of money to Tennis Auckland.
Tennis Auckland owns the men’s tournament and runs the women’s on behalf of Tennis NZ. How much exactly the tournaments bring in is commercially sensitive, but as a whole last year Tennis Auckland made $649,574.
That profit comes from various sources but the ASB Classic plays a significant factor in what Tennis Auckland can and can’t do.
In 2011, when the venue was being redeveloped, the tournaments made a considerable loss, but in good years, like the last few, Tennis Auckland CEO Brent Robinson says they’ve been able to invest the money made back into the sport.
‘‘The last two to three years we’ve been able to make a bit more out of the tournaments as they’ve grown and been successful,’’ Robinson said.
‘‘ . . . it’s enough money that it’s an important revenue stream to a sport like tennis in New Zealand.
‘‘Funding sport in New Zealand is a challenge for any sport, let alone tennis, and sustainable funding is really important.
‘‘It is a fine balancing act, you only have to go back to 2011, which was the last time the event was severely impacted by the weather and the organisation lost a lot of money that year.’’
Tennis Auckland gave $73,974 to Tennis NZ last year from the money made at the Classic, but the tournaments do allow the region to do things others around the country can’t.
‘‘One of the key ones is investing back into the facilities,’’ Robinson says of where the money is spent.
‘‘Tennis Auckland own or operate and maintain a number of tennis facilities and they’re big, expensive beasts to run.
‘‘With those assets we’ve got $360,000 depreciation costs before we even start investing on the maintenance. We would have spent over $600,000 last year maintaining and investing in those facilities and that’s a lot of money.
‘‘It’s not all funded by the ASB Classic, we have other revenue streams as well, but certainly in a good years it does underpin those sorts of costs.
‘‘We will spend around $230,000 on coaching programmes, which again we have good supporters for, in terms of the gaming trusts, but the overall revenue stream of the tournaments helps underpin some of that.’’
Between $350,000 and $400,000 is spent on helping support Tennis Auckland’s 52 clubs.
But when it comes to creating a legacy from the tournaments, Robinson admits more work needs to be done.
In the UK every summer the country goes tennis crazy for the fortnight of Wimbledon and it’s almost impossible to book a court anywhere. But once it’s over tennis gets forgotten again, although Andy Murray’s success has changed that to some degree.
Without a New Zealand player in the top 100, this country suffers from a similar problem.
‘‘There is no doubt we can do better in leveraging this two or three weeks that tennis is in the sun, to try to promote the sport the rest of the year,’’ Robinson said.
‘‘That’s one of our biggest challenges that we can do better on.’’