Tennis Australia's Craig Tiley revealed as Australia's highest paid sporting executive

Tennis Australia Chief Executive Craig Tiley has been revealed as the highest paid sporting executive in Australia, earning $US2.35 million ($3.78 million) in the fiscal year ending September 2023.

His salary has been brought to light in a 990 form, filed with the Inland Revenue Service in the USA that contains a level of detail far in excess of the organisation’s Australian annual report.

The document also disclosed that Tennis Australia Chief Content 0fficer Darren Pearce was paid $US690,798 ($1.1 million) and Cedric Cornelis, the organisation's Chief Commercial Officer, was paid $US590,818 ($951,000) over the same period.

As reported by The Age, former champions - Todd Woodbridge and Lleyton Hewitt - are also well renumerated for their work with Tennis Australia.

Woodbridge, 16-time grand slam event winner, earned $US264,000 ($425,000) as Tennis Australia’s 'media ambassador' while former US Open and Wimbledon champion Hewitt earned $US350,468 as Davis Cup captain.

In other sports, in 2023 Melbourne's Herald Sun revealed that then AFL Chief Executive Gillon McLachlan was paid more than $4 million a year.

At present, the salary of current AFL Chief Executive Andrew Dillon is not specifically identified, although total payments to AFL executives were $13.6 million in 2023, up from $11.8 million in the previous year.

Among other executives, The Australian has previously reported that NRL Chief Executive Andrew Abdo receives a salary of $1.55 million,

According to the Australian Olympic Committee’s annual report for 2023 released early last year, outgoing Chief Executive Matt Carroll was paid about $646,000.

The Australian Grand Prix Corporation’s annual report tabled in the Victorian Parliament late as of November contains information that a postholder identified as the ‘accountable officer’ (presumably Chief Executive Travis Auld) was paid between $680,000 and $689,999 last year.

In other sports, James Johnson and Phil Waugh, Chief Executives of Football Australia and Rugby Australia respectively are each paid in the region of $800,000, while Australian Sports Commission Chief Executive has a base salary of $460,000.

Image: Craig Tiley.