Comprehensive Report: Australian Open Tennis Event Management Analysis

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the Australian Open, a major Grand Slam tennis tournament. It examines the event's type, dimension, and attractions, highlighting the competition between top players and its global viewership. The report delves into a brief analysis of the event, including its form, location, budget considerations, and participant numbers. It also identifies and discusses the various stakeholders involved, such as the Australian Sports Commission, Tennis Australia, and Tennis Victoria, detailing their roles and contributions to the tournament's success. The report references various sources to support its findings, offering a well-rounded understanding of the event's management and its impact.

Running head: EVENT MANAGEMENT
Event Management
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
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Table of Contents
1. Type and dimension.................................................................................................................2
Attractions........................................................................................................................................2
2. Brief analysis............................................................................................................................2
a) Form of the event..................................................................................................................3
b) Location and size..............................................................................................................3
c) Budget considerations...........................................................................................................3
d) Number of participants......................................................................................................4
3. Stakeholders.............................................................................................................................4
Reference.........................................................................................................................................7

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1. Type and dimension
Australian open is one of the major Grand Slam tournaments of Tennis held in Melbourne. It
takes place in Melbourne Park every year in January. The men’s event started in the year 1905
and the women’s in 1922. A change came in the event in 2008 when the court color was changed
from green to blue. Moreover, a new court surface was also laid down in place of the Synpave
Rebound Ace which was a hard surface made of synthetic rubber and polyurethane. It seemed
that the new courts are faster than the previous courts, but they are comparatively slower than the
surfaces used in the Wimbledon and US Open (Beech, Kaiser and Kaspar 2014).
Attractions
The competition between big tennis players in the Australian Open helps the tournament
to get huge ratings. The international broadcasters of the event also attract millions of viewers.
The men’s final has an average of 4.4 million viewers in Australia and the women’s final had 1.7
million viewers in average. The event had a record of 728763 viewers in the ground during the
two weeks of Grand Slam. The recent Australian Open had 3.5 million which went up to 4.4
million viewers, who tuned in to the TV channel to watch the final between Rodger Federer and
Rafael Nadal, thus making it the most viewed show in a decade. Eurosport which has the
permission to broadcast the four Grand Slams in various areas attracted an average viewer of 7.2
million and the highest that it received was 116 million. The increasing appeal for Australian
Open has witnessed a growth in the audience by 20% each year (Bradbury and O’Boyle 2017).

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2. Brief analysis
The only international contest for professional tennis every year is the Australian Open. The
broadcast and social media became excited with the announcement of the emerging finals
between the two stalwarts of the tennis world in the Melbourne Park. The Australian open
has started growing with the growth of the city. People’s choice varied from the previous
hard court to the new hard court surface but the affinity for the event stood firm in its own
place.
a) Form of the event
With a huge range of partners and sub- activities, the event of Australian Open is a
striking example of active social media. There are famous players in this event which attracts the
audience from all over the world. The Australian Open total prize money for 2016 increased to 4
million Australian dollars which held a record of A$ 44,000,000 thus making it one of the most
famous sporting event (Gescheit et al. 2017).
b) Location and size
The Australian Open is held in Melbourne every year which encourages the male and
female sport star from around the world. The players get to stay in nice and comfortable places
so that they can concentrate properly on the game. They are given suitable training facilities so
that they can practice their skills before the match.
c) Budget considerations
All the investments done on the occasion of this grand event has a great impact on the
Australian budget. The investment become successful only when the budget allocated gets
returned back in the form of sponsorships, ticket price and other such ways (Jones 2014).

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According to the 2016 Australian Open, GAO Group International was engaged by Tennis
Australia for developing a combined digital marketing campaign and delivers a management for
the project of an exclusive grand event. The strategic partnership with the local Chinese media
organizations, community groups and business associations have grounded the campaign and
provided accessibility to the corporate market. GAO also provided a range of marketing
activities to support relationship, PR initiatives and travel and tourism programs in both Australia
and China. Starting from strategic planning and developing partnership through implementing
campaign and supporting event management to provide non- stop service and significant
exposure, GAO offered strong digital engagement and an extremely successful event
Promotional activities $30000
Rent $1000
Cost of balls $1000
Trophies $2000
Printing charges $2200
Collection of fees $6000
Miscellaneous $7000
Total $49200
d) Number of participants
In a grand event like Australian Open many players participate because of recognition and
identification. There were around 300 players in the championship divided into the categories of
men, women and wheelchair matches for the physically handicapped.

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3. Stakeholders
Australian Sports Commission focuses to get more participants for excelling in sports by
delivering important programs at par with the Australian Government’s sports policy objectives;
providing economic support; providing assistance to national sporting associations for high
performance and improving sustainability; building alignment, collaboration and effectiveness in
Australian sports. Tennis Australia’s pays attention to make Australia the largest tennis nation in
the world. They have started making great champions, expert players, devoted fans and huge
investments in the game. Tennis Victoria is the main body of the entire centre, clubs, regions,
associations, and the members throughout the Victoria region of Australia. Since it is the central
body of tennis board in Victoria therefore it is their responsibility to coordinate, manage,
promote and mix the many facets of the sport. Goulburn region in Australia is one of the regions
under Tennis Victoria which incorporates 7 local government areas and their associations such as
clubs, centre, players, coaches and volunteers. The GTA or Goulburn Tennis Network has a
major role to play in the growth and development of clubs tennis, clubs and associations. It is the
main hub of tennis in the region which consists of one delegate each from the Tennis Victoria
and the Goulburn region. They work for setting and delivering the goals and coordinate and
promote tennis activities in the region.
Valley sport is a non- profitable regional body of sports created to help the communities
for taking part in sports and recreational activities. They have a motto to lead in developing
active and healthy communities (Mahoney et al. 2015).
The current structure of Australian Open is the result of a complicated historical process
during which many actors were involved in the promotional activities of the tournament.
Professional tennis dates back to 1913 when it was shaped by the International Tennis Federation

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which is still dominant in the world of tennis. ITF is still in the governance the Grand Slam, the
professional tours and program for the women and men, and organizing the junior circuits. Since
the inception of this championship, ITF is responsible for organizing it but in 1968 when Open
era started, there was a line between the amateurs and the professional game (Supovitz 2013).
The promoters played a major role in the operation of professional tennis as they have
built special bonding with the professional athletes. This is done on a contractual basis so that the
specific organizations can select the match where the players can get economic benefit in
exchange of performance in sports. But the organizational structure remained unaltered for a
long duration of time while there were changes in the management structure adopted by the
Association Tennis Professionals or ATP. There were many important actions that were carried
out by beginning the activities which aimed at improving the all over functioning and
management of organizing professional tennis which gave a new character to ATP. In 1974,
attempts were made to make the stakeholders and the institution of Men’s International
Professional Tennis Council cooperate with each other (Vekkeli and Salonen 2015).

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Reference
Beech, J., Kaiser, S. and Kaspar, R., 2014. The business of events management. Pearson Higher
Ed.
Bradbury, T. and O’Boyle, I., 2017. The continuing evolution of sport
management. Understanding Sport Management: International Perspectives, p.273.
Brouwers, J., Sotiriadou, P. and De Bosscher, V., 2015. An examination of the stakeholders and
elite athlete development pathways in tennis. European Sport Management Quarterly, 15(4),
pp.454-477.
da Silva, E.C. and Las Casas, A.L., 2017. Sports Marketing Plan: An Alternative Framework for
Sports Club. International Journal of Marketing Studies, 9(4), p.15.
Gescheit, D., Cormack, S., Reid, M., Kemp, J., Omizzolo, M. and Duffield, R., 2017. Injury
epidemiology of elite tennis players at the 2011–2016 Australian Open. Journal of Science and
Medicine in Sport, 20, pp.e106-e107.
Jones, M., 2014. Sustainable event management: A practical guide. Routledge.
Mahoney, K.L., Esckilsen, L.A., Jeralds, A. and Camp, S., 2015. Public assembly venue
management: Sports, entertainment, meeting, and convention venues. Brown Books Publishing
Group.
Masterman, G., 2014. Strategic sports event management. Routledge.
Smith, K., Holmes, K., Storer, C., Lockstone-Binney, L. and Baum, T., 2013. Models of sports
event management and volunteer motivation. CAUTHE 2013: Tourism and Global Change: On
the Edge of Something Big, p.761.
Supovitz, F., 2013. The sports event management and marketing playbook. Wiley Global
Education.

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Thompson, A.J., 2017. Communication and social media. Understanding Sport Management:
International Perspectives, p.215.
Vekkeli, M. and Salonen, M.S., 2015. Attracting customers to sports event via social media
activity: Case: ExtremeRun.

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