Coronavirus: Mixed double-up over Australian Open tennis quarantine bill

Tennis Australia has been forced to clarify that it is paying for the quarantining of Australian Open players and their teams.

Novak Djokovic is all smiles as he exercises shirtless while in quarantine at the Majestic Suites in North Adelaide. Picture: Dean Martin

Tennis Australia has been forced to clarify that it is paying for the quarantining of Australian Open players and their teams, following contradictory statements on Wednesday from chief executive Craig Tiley and Victorian Emergency Services Minister Lisa Neville.

However, both TA and the ­Andrews government confirmed the cash-strapped organisation was receiving substantial taxpayer funds to host the grand slam event, which begins on February 8.

“Tennis Australia is funding the AO quarantine program,” a spokeswoman said in a statement issued on Wednesday afternoon.

“The Victorian government support relates to ongoing discussions about funding for an extension to the agreement to host the AO in Melbourne and a range of other assets to help promote the city and the state, domestically and internationally.”

The clarification followed a morning radio interview, during which Mr Tiley told 3AW that ­taxpayers’ money would be used to pay for quarantine. “The quarantining costs are new costs. The state government is supporting and assisting that,” he said.

Asked how much the state ­government was contributing, Mr Tiley said: “Well that’s still to be determined because we’re still in the middle of that. Probably the end of next week or the week after we’ll know exactly. It’ll be whatever the quarantine cost ends up being, but the government also supports the venue and the site.”

Pressed again on whether he was saying that taxpayers would foot some of the bill for quarantining tennis players, Mr Tiley said: “Yes, absolutely”.

A short time later, Ms Neville said that was not the case. “I did see Craig Tiley’s comments … but I want to be very clear that hotel quarantine for the Australian Open is fully funded by Tennis Australia,” Ms Neville said, adding: “I have triple-confirmed that again today.”

Ms Neville said the state government did provide funding for the Australian Open “as an event, which we do with all major events, but that is separate to the hotel quarantine program, which is completely funded by … Tennis Australia”.

Consecutive state governments have invested almost $1bn in Melbourne Park since 2010, helping to secure a contract to lock the venue in to host the Australian Open until at least 2036.

Mr Tiley said the extra costs ­associated with this year’s Open would exhaust TA’s $80m cash reserve, built up over the past decade, with it borrowing at least another $60m as a concessional loan from the government, supplemented by the private sector.

He also confirmed on Tuesday night that the South Australian government had contributed $44m to quarantine high-profile tennis players at its Memorial Drive facility, in exchange for TA agreeing to let Adelaide host exhibition matches.

“(South Australian) Premier (Steven) Marshall has shown great leadership and, the same thing, Dan Andrews here, I consider him a brave leader because it is risky, but to agree to do this because he sees the benefit for the community is commendable,” Mr Tiley said.

The confusion over who is paying for quarantine came amid confirmation of four more cases of coronavirus linked to the tennis, bringing the total number associated with the tournament to 10.

Another player who was previously classified as positive was deemed to be non-infectious.

Additional reporting: Courtney Walsh