It would be wrong to expect a huge crowd when the virus still holds us captive

Victorians normally flock to major events, but a poor crowd turnout shows tennis is the latest victim of our COVID hangover.

An outside show court with only a few spectators. Picture: David Caird

Empty stands. Ticket-give-aways. No atmosphere. No interest.

When the most exciting thing going down at the Australian Open is Serena’s one-legged catsuit, you know you’ve got a problem.

Organisers are scratching their heads over the low turnout.

How can this happen in Australia’s major events state – the place where Victorians turn up in their thousands in the freezing cold to watch their beloved AFL teams get thrashed week after week?

Perhaps they should have seen it coming.

Serena Williams debuted her catsuit but not many spectators were there to see it. Picture: Michael Klein

Part of the problem is the terrible timing given that school is now back and our attention is on other things. Summer’s over and we’ve moved on.

After a year of staying home, we’re also less inclined to want to be part of large crowds – however well they might be managed.

The last few days also haven’t been kind to us.

It feels wrong to expect people to throng to a major event when the virus is still holding our city captive.

Thanks to two cases of the virus among hotel quarantine workers, we’re back to wearing masks, counting the number of people in our homes and halting the number of people returning to the city.

So why should we then join 29,999 other people and crowd into the Australian Open each day?

The view in Rod Laver Arena on day one. Picture: Mackenzie Sweetnam/Getty Images

It doesn’t feel right.

We don’t want to be America, allowing 25,000 fans to crowd into the Super Bowl despite nearly half a million deaths.

Predictions of crowds of 390,000 now seem wildly optimistic. On day one there were just 17,000 people in the stands – half of the 30,000 allowed. Compare this to 64,000 last year.

The fact that our city was put at additional risk by the influx of 1000 tennis players and their crew from countries where the virus was rife didn’t help. They didn’t want to be locked up in hotel rooms, believing their right to be at peak fitness trumped our right not to be exposed to the deadly disease.

Tennis Australia CEO Craig Tiley said Australia had done an “incredible job in collectively managing the perils of the pandemic”.

He’s overlooking the fact that his event, and the people it brought to our shores, made this task more difficult than it needed to be.

It’s hard to feel triumphant when a return to full lockdown could be just a few dozen cases away.

We love our major events and we love our tennis.

But no one’s feeling the vibe this year.