How much the Australian Open is really worth; PwC peace deal

Tennis Australia chief executive Craig Tiley earned $US1.59m in 2022, including a $US325,375 bonus. Picture: Mark Stewart

The first days of summer mean it won’t be long until Australian Open tennis time – the biggest and most lucrative sports event this country holds.

And some documents that just lobbed with, of all places, the Internal Revenue Service in the US via non-profit newsroom ProPublica on Friday have helped us shed some light on just how big the Open is.

Each year Tennis Australia lodges with the IRS what is known as a Form 990, which is quite literally the federal tax return for a non-profit.

There can be a lag but the most recent documents relate to Tennis Australia’s 2022 financial year, which correlates with its most recent annual report lodged with the corporate regulator in Australia – a year in which the organisation made a $4.6m surplus from a record $505m revenue.

While the document it lodges with the Australian Securities & Investments Commission and to its state members has the standard profit and loss statement and balance sheet details, Tennis Australia’s Form 990 throws up a few juicier items that Australian authorities don’t ask for.

Take chief executive Craig Tiley’s annual salary, which in 2022 was $US1.59m ($2.4m on current exchange rates), including a $US325,375 bonus.

Is Tiley worth it?

There are at least 50 ASX CEOs who are paid twice as much as him, and we reckon quite a few of those have less onerous jobs.

There’s also no way of benchmarking how he goes against other sports in Australia, given the AFL, NRL, Rugby Australia, Football Australia and others refuse to disclose what their bosses get paid.

The AFL used to, but AFL Commission chairman Richard Goyder ended that tradition almost a decade ago when polo-loving Gillon McLachlan became AFL CEO in 2014.

That league’s last full pay disclosure was for Andrew Demetriou in 2013, when he received $1.8m including performance bonuses and an additional $2m long-term incentive bonus.

NRL boss Andrew Abdo has been estimated to be paid about $1.55m, but otherwise information about top sports boss salaries is scarce.

Tiley does run an extremely impressive sports event, which gets bigger and bigger every year and dominates the Australian sporting scene for two weeks every January.

Meanwhile, the IRS asks non-profits to list all executives with annual salaries of more than $US100,000 – there’s 25 of those at Tennis Australia, including Tiley.

Chief operating officer Tom Larner is the second highest paid tennis official at $US514,759, then chief communications officer Darren Pearce ($US490,255).

There are plenty of others, including Davis Cup captain and former playing legend Lleyton Hewitt ($US302,571) and doubles champion Todd Woodbridge ($317,363) whose title is media ambassador.

Tennis Australia chief operating officer Tom Larner. Picture: NCA Newswire / Gaye Gerard

There are also some interesting details about other expenditure Tennis Australia has to undertake for the Australian Open, including listing its top five independent contractors.

The global men’s ATP Tour got about $US37m, the women’s WTA Tour $US27m and Jamie Pherous’s Corporate Travel Management received $US19m for “staff travel bookings”, which we presume includes booking flights and accommodation for all the big tennis stars travelling to and around Australia.

The 2022 tournament was memorably won by Aussie hero Ash Barty and Rafael Nadal, but was at the tail end of Covid-related restrictions. The Victorian Department of Justice and Community Safety was compensated a cool $US30.5m for “costs associated with (Covid) quarantine” services.

In total, Tennis Australia took in $US353m in tournament related income, and it shelled out $US125m in event operation costs, another $US75m in event player costs, $US40m in other salary and wages and $28m in advertising and promotion.

And why does Tennis Australia do all this?

It is all set out in its own description of its mission on the Form 990.

“We believe playing (tennis?) makes life better” it says, before listing various other objectives and strategies that are “all achieved through the reinvestment of Australian Open revenues back into the sport”.

There’s a smattering of other Australian organisations that also have the dubious pleasure of lodging Form 990s in the US and all the disclosure that comes with it.

One is the University of Queensland (Vice-chancellor Professor Deborah Terry was paid $US807,236 in 2021 for those keeping score) and there’s also the CSIRO, where CEO Larry Marshall took home $US708,230 in 2022.

Marshall has since headed off to be a board member at Andrew Forrest’s Fortescue Metals Group.

PwC peace deal

If you were wondering about the claims former PwC Australia rainmaker Neil Fuller was set to make against his former firm, you’ll be sorely disappointed after the case in the NSW District Court was withdrawn.

It seems “the rover” Fuller and his old firm have reached a deal just days out from the fight between the two set to face courts on Friday.

Fuller, who retired from PwC in 2019, was set to be crowbarred out from the firm’s generous retirement package – which sources tip was worth almost $400,000 a year for the former senior tax partner.

PwC chief executive Kevin Burrowes. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Readers may remember Fuller as sidekick to Peter Collins, PwC’s former head of international tax, who managed to torch the firm’s reputation after distributing confidential government briefing documents that would allow the firm to front-run new tax laws.

A representative of the NSW District Court said Fuller’s case had been discontinued, in a sign the former tax partner and PwC smoked the peace pipe.

A PwC spokesman couldn’t help when questions were put regarding the sweetheart deal signed between the audit and consulting giant and The Rover.

But we can’t help but notice there are several other former PwC figures circling the firm amid its attempts to sever their links to the retirement scheme.

PwC’s new boss Kevin Burrowesmay well want more peace deals.

And in our second instalment in PwC gossip, NSW Nationals member for Dubbo Dugald Saunders was keen to pose up with the firm’s global leader for strategy and leadership Blair Sheppard, who was in town on Friday.

Sheppard was giving a speech for Business Sydney.

It’s all rather interesting that Sheppard, a key figure in PwC global, was strutting his stuff for the business community, given the firm desperately needs them to keep writing new business rather than picking a rival consulting house.