Australian Open smashes records as grandest of slams

This year’s Australian Open was the biggest grand slam on record, attracting more than 900,000 people and setting attendance highs despite the shortage of big-name players.

There was no Ash Barty, Roger Federer or Serena Williams and drawcards Rafael Nadal and Nick Kyrgios bowed out early, but tournament director Craig Tiley said this year’s event “not only beat its record but pretty much smashed it”.

Crowds attending the Australian Open at the beach bar outside Rod Laver Arena for the men’s final. Credit: Eddie Jim

Attendance over three weeks was 902,312. It was a record 839,192 over the main two weeks of the event, up from 812,174 in January 2020, before the pandemic.

The figures make the Australian Open the biggest of the grand slams – 515,164 fans attended Wimbledon last year, 613,000 went to the French Open and 776,000 were at the US Open.

Tiley has his sights set on 1 million attendees and plans to do it by extending the Open festivities further into the week before the tournament officially starts.

“This year was the start of it,” he said. “It’s going to be a three-week extravaganza, so it’s three weeks of tennis, three weeks of music, three weeks of other events, three weeks of food, three weeks of kids’ ballpark.”

Attendees can expect more events like this year’s Novak Djokovic and Kyrgios exhibition match.

“You’ll see some unique one-off matches,” Tiley said. “You’ll see more and more events with top players playing each other with different prize money. You’ll see announced at some point a special two-day tournament, which is the first of its kind globally and all the players will get behind it.”

He said the Open’s numbers this year were remarkable given two days of bad weather, the late opening up of China, which he estimated cost the tournament about 60,000 Chinese visitors, and the loss of many marquee players.

“It was reported that we didn’t have the greats any more, that it was going to be terrible,” he said. “But people just want to be entertained. They want to have some fun, and tennis is a great option for them, and it’s become a summer thing to do for Melburnians and for Australians and also for our guests from around the world.”

Spiderman performs on stage at the kids area at the Australian Open. Credit: Aaron Francis, Tennis Australia

The Australian Open has the benefit of space, with Tiley making the most of the vast expanse of Melbourne Park to fit in everything from beach bars to padel tennis courts and retail outlets.

In comparison, areas for spectators at Wimbledon are limited and tennis fans squeeze onto “Murray’s Mound” in the evening as one of the few gathering spots outside the stadiums.

This year, the Open expanded further outwards along Birrarung Marr for a kids’ section that included a ropes course, an abseiling tower and a giant waterslide, alongside tennis skills games.

Tiley plans to expand the physical footprint as well as the timing of the Open.

He takes heart from the tournament’s final Sunday, when Rod Laver Arena was close to its capacity of 14,850 for the men’s final between Djokovic and Stefanos Tsitsipas.

But most attendees weren’t even inside the stadium – a record attendance of 45,832 spectators on Sunday mostly came from fans watching the big screens outside the arena.

Television ratings, meanwhile, were hit by the absence of big names. A spokesman for Nine, which owns this masthead, said 10 million people tuned in this year, down from the 12.5 million last year.

“Coming off a year where Ash Barty and the Special Ks [Kyrgios and Thanasi Kokkinakis] won, it was always going to be a tough act to follow, but this year we have seen a huge 9Now viewership, as viewers continue to migrate from linear to streaming,” he said.

Tennis star Stan Wawrinka pops a bottle of Piper-Heidsieck champagne.Credit: Scott McNaughton

The Open’s champagne sponsor, Piper-Heidsieck, doubled the size of its champagne bar at Rod Laver Arena this year and expects to have doubled sales within the bar to surpass last year’s sales of 42,000 glasses of champagne.

“The opportunity to really turn this event into a festival has been achieved,” Piper-Heidsieck managing director Benoit Collard said.

Paul Guerra, chief executive of the Victorian Chamber of Commerce, said that with its international television audience, Melbourne had been the “envy of the world” for the past two weeks.

“Melbourne has had through COVID a different reputation. By showing these pictures all over the world, [it’s] going to encourage internationals to say actually, ‘Melbourne looks like it’s open and buzzing,’ ” he said. “We need the internationals back here. We need the international workers back here. We need the international students back here.”

Guerra said the Open had economically benefited the city more broadly.

“The hotels are telling me that accommodation has certainly been up over the past couple of weeks. Restaurateurs that I’ve spoken to really had a great couple of weeks as well,” he said.

Last year, the Open brought in $405 million for Victoria, and while this year’s figure has not been released yet, Tiley said he expected it to be much more than that.

The tournament itself is likely to turn a small profit as it exceeded its revenue targets through ticketing, merchandise sales, food and beverage sales but incurred higher than expected costs due to inflation.

The cast of & Juliet perform at the Australian Open. Credit: Morgan Hancock, Tennis Australia

Florencia Aimo, head of marketing for hotel group and Open sponsor Marriott International, said Marriott hotels in Melbourne were at 80 per cent occupancy during the tournament and at 84 per cent in the CBD.

“People are really happy that we are kind of back to normal and beyond,” she said. “Business is back, travel is back, events are back.”

Marriott has one year left on its contract with the Australian Open, and Aimo said the hotel group is starting discussions to potentially extend the arrangement, which she said was “beyond tennis”.

Producer Michael Cassel was grateful his upcoming show, & Juliet, was able to take over the centre court at the Open for a pre-game preview.

“For us, it is a wonderful opportunity to introduce our productions to a broad audience, many of whom have travelled to Melbourne, and many of whom are keen to participate in a variety of activities beyond the tennis schedule,” Cassel said.

The City of Melbourne recorded weekend activity at Southbank up 36 per cent compared with the same time in 2019 and up 35 per cent on weekend nights.

Theatre owner Jason Marriner said January was the biggest month of the year for theatre visits, and Australian Open attendees helped drive these numbers.

The Morning Edition newsletter is our guide to the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up here.