Australian Open 2021 Receives Substantial Financial Aid to Meet Strict Coronavirus Regulations

The financial burden caused by the coronavirus pandemic has been huge on the tournaments. The Australian Open 2021 is also facing the same. With a heavy drop in profit expected in 2021, the Australian Open received monetary help from the Australian government.

The organizers of the Australian Open, Tennis Australia recorded a drop in profits. A further drop is expected going into 2021 as the Grand Slam has been postponed and the major revenue streams have also been affected. This drop in profits made Tennis Australia eligible to receive money from the government’s JobKeeper program.

“JobKeeper eligibility was assessed and funds were received on the basis of a reduction in turnover mainly attributable to the closure of customer facing tennis facilities around the country,” said the 2020 Tennis Australia report.

Tennis Australia has received a total of A$4,527,000 from the government. This will further help the Australian Open, as now they have moved it to February from its original holiday schedule of January.

Australian Open 2021 bio-bubble

Tennis Australia will also spend a lot of its cash reserves and also take credit to maintain the Aus Open 2021 bio bubble. Having almost a 1000 members from the tennis fraternity arriving in Australia, the organizers will have to quarantine them all. This will be a hard expense on the Grand Slam’s account books.

The players are being brought to Australia using chartered flights. Then certain designated hotels will be used to secure the players and various other members. They will quarantine there for 14 days. When the Aus Open begins, it will have 50 percent of the usual fans at Melbourne Park. That is a major revenue stream halved.

“The group will most likely introduce external funding in the form of a line of credit to cover the significant costs that have arisen as part of the COVID-19 response to meeting quarantine and bio-security measures for AO2021,” said the report.

Even the big tournaments are facing the brunt of the pandemic. But these tournaments also have vast cash reserves which will not let them collapse. Australian Open organizers are safeguarding this cash reserve to rebuild the sport post the coronavirus period.

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