Australian Open Boosts Prize Money By $7M, Total Pot Now At $40M, Double From 2007!

by Staff | January 8th, 2015, 11:50 pm
  • 4 Comments

The Australian Open announced today that prize money for the first Slam of the season will increase by $7 million dollars, putting the sum total for the 2015 event at $40 million (AUS) which is double the purse of 2007!

Men and women singles winners will each get $3.1M ($2.52M USD) while a first round loser will take home $34,500 ($27.8K USD).

“Obviously this is not a decision we have taken without a lot of consideration. But we have an ongoing commitment to the players that we are determined to help improve the pay and conditions of life on the international tennis tour,” Tennis Australia CEO Craig Tiley explained.


“We are honouring that commitment. We as an international tennis community still have some work to do in ensuring that the life of an international professional tennis player is properly compensated. This increase is simply the Australian Open honouring our pledge to the players that we will continue to look at all ways and means possible to get this right. That involves increasing prize money as well as cutting and where possible removing the costs associated with playing our events.”

The move comes as the Australian dollar has slid almost 15 cents against the U.S. dollar since August.

Australian Open Prize Money Through The Years
2007 $20,000,000
2008 $20,600,000
2009 $23,140,000
2010 $24,094,000
2011 $25,005,635
2012 $26,000,000
2013 $30,000,000
2014 $33,000,000
2015 $40,000,000


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4 Comments for Australian Open Boosts Prize Money By $7M, Total Pot Now At $40M, Double From 2007!

fumus Says:

Oh sweet, cuz I’m really counting on this money to pay the credit card bills after the holidays.

Thanks Tennis-X for keeping on top of this.

January 9th, 2015 at 9:44 am


SG1 Says:

Wondering how ticket prices have been affected over the years. What’s the point in giving away more prize money if it’s entirely at the expense of Joe Public? Corporate interests have generally priced the average person out of going to most sports. It’s kind of sad.

January 9th, 2015 at 12:44 pm


elina Says:

Tennis has one of the largest gaps between the top player’s pay and the rest of the pack. Just look at how quickly it drops off.

http://graphics.wsj.com/us-open-32/

As a result, tennis fails to attract the best athletes. Relatively speaking, it is the poor man’s sport from a player revenue standpoint.

Tennis needs to do more to compete for the best athletes. This is one (of several) reasons that the average age of the Top 100 tennis player continues to grow and why we are at the cusp of a weak era.

Most of these increases are back ended towards prize money for the earlier rounds in recognition of this problem which is way overdue. Better late than never!

January 9th, 2015 at 1:06 pm


Rich Says:

TENNIS EXPENSIVE ENTRY POINTS:

Regarding tennis being a poor man’s sport, I think actually it’s an expensive one to play, and that’s the principal bar to youth entry into the game.

Tennis requires substantial investments in lessons and coaching at an early age, plus relatively pricey equipment.

Also, with 69% of Americans being overweight, tennis is way too much of a physically demanding and brutal activity for most in the USA.

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/obesity-overweight.htm

EQUAL PRIZE MONEY???

A tangential issue: should the women and men receive equal prize money??? Personally, I say “no.” Their pay should be based on revenue generated, principally from TV advertising and secondarily from gate receipts. If the women draw more fans, and generate 15% more revenue, at the 2015 Aussie Open than do the men, then they should earn 15% more in prize money. NFL owners get more money than their NHL counterparts for the same reason.

I believe we would find that the men significantly outdraw the women at most of the shared events, including the Slams, but this could change over time.

Regardless, from a business perspective, this seems the most logical and “fair” course of action.

Conversely, if you believe in affirmative action and efforts to boost the historically weaker group, then I’m fine with that as well, just please be honest about it if you’re Venus Williams and the WTA.

January 9th, 2015 at 3:45 pm

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