Australian Open officials reveal contingency plans for showpiece tournament amid COVID concerns
The Australian Open could run up against next year’s footy finals in a worst-case scenario to save the $387 million tournament as uncertainty lingers over the impact the coronavirus pandemic could have on the iconic event.
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The Australian Open could run up against next year’s footy finals in a worst-case scenario to save the $387 million tournament.
Despite the current spike in COVID-19 numbers in Victoria, organisers remain confident they will be able to stage the Open in its usual January timeslot and even welcome crowds at a 50 per cent capacity.
Global superstars including Rafael Nadal, who this week pulled out of the US Open citing health concerns, have already indicated privately that they’re committed to headlining Melbourne Park in the New Year.
Plans are in place for a “bio-bubble” to be set up in every capital city to help the 2500-odd superstars and their coaches spread out across the country and quarantine safely, before meeting in Melbourne for the grand slam.
However, Australian Open director Craig Tiley has revealed there are five contingency plans in place should the virus situation worsen, with the most extreme being to cancel altogether in a year when the tournament’s pandemic insurance will have cruelly just expired.
There is no option to move the Open to a different city — it’s Melbourne or bust — but stage four of the plan is to look to delay the tournament until either as late as May, or in another window after September.
Tiley insists the chances of tennis ending up on a collision course with the AFL and NRL, another Channel 9 product, remains unlikely, but the option is there.
“You’ve got up until May at the latest. And then after that, after September,” Tiley told News Corp. “It would compromise the rest of the global calendar and we wouldn’t do anything without communicating with the ATP and the WTA and the other key stakeholders.
“And if it wasn’t possible it wouldn’t be possible. We wouldn’t be desperate to run it, we’d do what’s in the best interests of the tour.
“If you’re having to cancel in January, you would argue if you did it in April, how much different would April be to January? Probably not much unless we knew everyone in Australia was going to be vaccinated by the end of March.
“It’s got to be considered. We have to put it as an option but the probability of that is like one out of five.”
The direct economic impact of the 2020 Australian Open in Melbourne and Victoria was a staggering $387 million. Even without pandemic insurance, now too expensive to renew, Tennis Australia has $80 million in cash reserves to help ride out worst case scenarios.
Australian Open officials are optimistic they won’t have to drop down any lower than stage 3 of their scenario planning, which is to host the tournament – as the US Open is about to – without crowds and for broadcast only. But they still believe allowances for 50 per cent crowds is realistic.
Tiley says he has spoken to leading stars including Nadal and Roger Federer, and plans to catch up again with Nick Kyrgios and Ash Barty following their decisions to withdraw from the US Open draw – but believes there is a firm commitment across the board to play the Australian Open.
Channel 9 sought a TV rights reduction from the NRL earlier this year when the virus up-ended the football codes, but Tiley is adamant the Australian Open, watched by over one billion eyeballs, will deliver the full promised package.
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“I’ve spoken to Channel 9, to Hugh Marks, we’ve had a really successful start to our relationship and as with all of our partners, we don’t have a transactional relationship with anyone,” said Tiley.
“The most important thing to us is the long-term position. Nine are great. We’ve been open about our scenarios and we fully expect from a broadcast point of view we’ll be able to 100 per cent deliver what we’re expected to.
“We’ll have all the players, have all the matches, all the times … we’re not naive to the fact it’s a different environment, but for most of our partners we’re very optimistic we’ll be able to deliver what they had in 2020 because they rely on elements which we can deliver 100 per cent on.”
AUSTRALIAN OPEN CONTINGENCIES
Stage 1: Normal tournament in late January.
Stage 2: Tournament with 50 per cent crowds.
Stage 3: Tournament no crowds, but still in January.
Stage 4: Delay tournament to May or November.
Stage 5: Cancel tournament.