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Tiley issues Australian Open warning after attempts to poach iconic tournament
“You’ve got to do it now for the future.”
www.sen.com.au
Tennis Australia boss Craig Tiley has revealed just how close Melbourne came to losing the Australian Open throughout the pandemic and warns continued development of Melbourne Park is required to ward off other cities.
In an exclusive interview with the Herald Sun, Tiley said foreign investors and governments had attempted to get the iconic tournament moved overseas during lockdowns.
Melbourne and Victoria suffered through one of the world’s longest lockdowns during the pandemic, with the Australian Open forgoing significant crowd numbers in 2021 and 2022 as a result.
Melbourne does have a contract to host the Australian Open until 2046.
“Yep – we had a lot of people interested,” Tiley said about the staging of the event during the pandemic.
“Private equity know that when it’s in good times it’s a very healthy business, very attractive for private equity.
“So there was quite a bit of interest and that was just the beginning of outside interest in the event. And you expect it.”
Tiley also stated that Sydney and Shanghai interests had put deals on the table to move the first Grand Slam of the calendar year.
“I know it was discussed and it was argued, absolutely,” he said about moving the tournament elsewhere during the pandemic.
“From a personal point, the Australian Open should always be in Melbourne – I’ve always advocated for that and I think it is a Melbourne event in my view.
“But I’m just one person.
“There is an organisation, there is a board, there are stakeholders and there is also the company for the future.
“There was a period back in 2010 when there was significant interest from Sydney and significant interest from Shanghai.
“To the point where proposals were put on the table around what it would take to move the grand slam to those cities.”
Since 2009, the state government has poured just shy of $1 billion into the redevelopment of Melbourne & Olympic Parks.
That was only completed earlier this year, but Tiley says more needs to be done to keep pace with the other Slams.
“We do need to develop another master plan and work with the state government on it,” he said.
“A lot of people will say, ‘Oh there is no need. We’ve just finished the redevelopment’.
“But you’ve got to do it now for the future.
“And there is going to be a need for another stadium, whether that be a refurbishment or a replacement of John Cain Arena, I don’t know but there will be a need for that.
“There will be a need for more courts, as the event grows onto a three week event.”
As a result of losing what Tiley says is essentially $80 million in cash reserves while staging the Australian Open in the pandemic, Tennis Australia is hoping to attract record crowds to next month’s tournament.
The 2023 Australian Open runs from January 16-29, with full capacity crowds returnig for the first time since 2020.
