Australian Open’s Craig Tiley reveals plan to stare down threats from China and Saudi Arabia

Following a record 1.1 million fans attending the 2024 Australian Open, Tournament Director and Tennis Australia Chief Executive Craig Tiley has outlined his plans for Melbourne’s continued hosting of the Grand Slam event in the face of potential challenges from Saudi Arabia and China.

With Tennis Australia having extended its contract with the Victorian Government to ensure Melbourne Park continues hosting the officially branded ‘Grand Slam of Asia Pacific’ until at least 2046, the tournament, which now runs for 15 days and its precursor qualifying tournament has significance far beyond tennis.

With live entertainment, corporate meeting rooms, children’s playgrounds offering zip lining, waterslides and a range of other activities, the event generates around half-a-billion dollars into Victoria each year.

Mindful that other nations are looking to have the Grand Slam event relocated or to create rival events, Tiley told AAP “we’ll never take it for granted.”

Explaining the challenge from other nations, he noted “let me tell you why it’s always a threat - because anyone could decide tomorrow that ‘we have an event with $100m in prize money and I’m going to put the top 32 players and everyone’s guaranteed to make $2m’. That’s a threat. People can do that and there’s nothing stopping them from doing it in January.

“So when the (Victorian) Premier said the Australian (Open) was under threat, it’s not under threat to be moved as much as it’s under threat that something at the same time goes past it. That’s why we always have to invest in this growth, invest in infrastructure on the precinct, keep evolving and developing. We’ve got a very aggressive growth strategy.”

Innovations this year included starting the tournament on a Sunday for the first time in more than a century, a move that drew more than 80,000 additional spectators.

Also new was the so-called Party Court 6 with a bar added, even if it prompted some complaints from players about ‘intoxicated’ spectators being too rowdy. Fans were also allowed more freedom of movement between games on the show courts.

Tiley explained “I can proudly say that we’re shifting the paradigm even for the fan experience”, applauding the Tennis Australia board for approving the new spendings after the governing body moved on from debt incurred during the pandemic.

He advised “the team did a really good job about getting ourselves out of debt with a very fast rebound. We repaid our loan to the government. We reduced costs.

“We had a freeze on head count for a year-and-a-half where there was no increases in staff salaries, or there was minimal I should say. But we did some things that kept our cost-base low, and that was across the board. We introduced initiatives and then we made a decision this year to invest in accelerating the growth of the (Australian Open).”
With Australian Associated Press.

Images: Australian Open Tournament Director and Tennis Australia Chief Executive Craig Tiley (top) and Australian Open activation (below). Credit: Australian Open/Tennis Australia.