Ash Barty’s retirement to cost Tennis Australia nearly $500 million
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Ash Barty and Craig Tiley, CEO of Tennis Australia
Ash Barty‘s retirement decision has surely shocked the entire tennis fraternity for the unexpected nature of the announcement. With the player just having clinched the first Grand Slam of the season and being ranked World No. 1 for 112 consecutive weeks, one could easily say that the Australian was enjoying her life as a Pro on the Tour.
The player however had a different perspective believing that she had ticked all the boxes and achieved all her goals that she had when she began her career as a Pro at the age of 14. As she bids goodbye to the game in the capacity of a Pro as she has promised to stay in touch with the sport as much as possible, Tennis Australia took a massive hit because of the 25-year old’s retirement.
Being the most popular Australian active player on the Tour during her career, the legend of Barty grew even further after she ended Australia’s wait of 44 years for a homegrown Australian Open champion when she won the Grand Slam in January this year. The women’s finals shattered many TRP records and was one of the most-watched finals in the country in a long time with a peak viewing of 4.2 million achieved in what was the biggest audience to watch a women’s final in Australia since 1999 when the TV rating system was brought in.
The current deal with Channel Nine of Australia is worth $300 million that will expire in 2024 having signed in 2019. Tennis Australia was looking to expand the renewal eyeing a $500 million deal using Barty’s popularity as their bargaining chip but with her retirement, the negotiations will have a completely new angle.
“Absence of Ash Barty and Big-3 is bad for Tennis Australia”: Sports Tycoon Colin Smith
Colin Smith, Managing Director of Global Media and Sports in his recent dialogue with News Corp forecasted how Tennis Australia will have a tough time getting a lucrative deal in future as Barty has retired and the Big-3 Club of Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal are also having respective challenges in near future over their participation in the Grand Slam.
“Somebody is not going to be paying mega dollars, or what they would have if Ash was continuing. At the end of the day, sports have to pay their way and we have two sports in Australia that are must watch and must have – AFL and NRL. Tennis is a really nice lead-in (to promote new seasons) because it’s got a true halo effect to it, but we’re not talking about premiums of another $40-million-a-year at all.
“If I’m going to be involved in a broadcast war for tennis and therefore pay a super-premium, I’m much less likely to when I’ve just lost my competitive advantage for guaranteeing a TV audience in Ash Barty,” said Smith pointing out how difficult it will be for Craig Tiley led Tennis Australia in their talks for a new deal.
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Sarthak Shitole
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