INTHEBLACK September 2021 - Magazine - Page 29
“OUR BUSINESS IS JUST OUR
PEOPLE, SO WE DID EVERYTHING
WE COULD TO MAKE SURE WE
COULD KEEP OUR WORKFORCE.
THEY’RE THE ONES THAT BUILD
THE EVENT AND DELIVER OUR
SPORT TO THE COMMUNITY.”
“As a finance professional, you always fall back
on the facts,” she says. “What we learned through
COVID-19 is that, yes, absolutely you need facts,
but you’re not going to have all of them. You’ve got to
make some gut calls.
“Obviously, you’re managing the risk, but you’ve got
to make some decisions off the cuff, and you’ve got
to put forward ideas that aren’t always based in the
finance department. You may have a good idea about
what could happen in the tennis side of things, or in
the entertainment or hospitality side of things.”
Azzopardi says Tennis Australia’s first priority was
its people. Customer-facing tennis facilities around
the country were closed, as was the organisation’s
head office, located at Melbourne Park, and staff were
required to work remotely.
“Our business is just our people, so we did
everything we could to make sure we could keep
our workforce. They’re the ones that build the event
and deliver our sport to the community.”
DRAWING ON RESERVES
Tennis Australia received more than $A4.5 million
in JobKeeper support as it sought to implement
measures to combat the exceptional financial cost of
staging the 2021 Australian Open. The organisation
had originally expected the tournament to cost
between A$25 million to $30 million. As the event
approached, however, the organisation expected the
expenses to stretch to more than A$60 million.
“The challenging thing in a pandemic environment
is that, in addition to delivering an international
Grand Slam, the Australian Open is about the fans
and the customer experience, which is the brand that
Tennis Australia has built,” says Azzopardi.
“We needed to balance that in the face of restrictions
that were changing almost every day. We had to
consider whether we could even do the Australian
Open. Could we actually have patrons on site? How
were we going to get the players into Australia?”
Before the pandemic struck, Tennis Australia
had built up a cash reserve of A$80 million, which
Azzopardi describes as an “absolute anchor point”.
“We wouldn’t have got through it without that,”
she says.
“Having reserves that strengthen your balance
sheet is absolutely key. We had to carefully manage
the balance sheet, while also trying to support our
people and suppliers who contribute to the delivery
of the Australian Open.
Above: Matches held at
the Optus Stadium in
Perth, Western Australia,
were closed to spectators
in May 2021 as part of
COVID-19 safety measures.
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