Tennis Australia needs five years to recover from pandemic
December 2, 2020 9:23:30 am
About 800,000 people attended the Australian Open in January. (Reuters)
Tennis Australia (TA) expects to exhaust most of its A$80 million ($59.01 million) reserves to maintain funding to the sport as it deals with significant costs in staging the Australian Open during the COVID-19 pandemic.
TA boss Craig Tiley said the governing body would likely spend more than A$40 million on quarantine and biosecurity operations for the year’s first Grand Slam, which is also expected to be delayed from its Jan. 18-31 schedule.
“We also expect that we will use the majority of our reserves in maintaining funding to the sport and playing group,” Tiley said in comments published by The Australian newspaper.
“As a result of these costs we are exploring options for a line of credit and/or a loan which will allow us to maintain cash flow at critical times and support us in the recovery from the impacts of the pandemic once access to government subsidies have ended.
“We believe that recovery from the pandemic will take up to five years.”
The biosecurity arrangements will involve additional costs in accommodating players and their entourages during Australia’s mandatory 14-day quarantine for international arrivals.
