As the US Open enters its decisive week, a look at how Grand Slams generate revenue – and which one makes the most money.
Like many tennis Grand Slams, this year’s US Open will be box office in more ways than one. On the court, the last Grand Slam of the year has already thrown up several salivating plot lines.
Men’s world number one Jannik Sinner plays in what is his first tournament since being cleared of any wrongdoing after a positive drug test.
Naomi Osaka made an emotional – and triumphant – return to the US Open, having missed last year’s tournament after pulling out of the sport with mental health difficulties and then having a child.
And for British fans concerned that tennis in the post-Murray era might be short of drama, Dan Evans provided plenty, coming through his first round game in five sets, in what was the longest match in US Open history.
But it is highly likely that the record-breaking won’t be confined to the tennis at Flushing Meadows. Organisers are targeting another flush year for the Grand Slam’s finances, too.
But just how much money do Grand Slam tournaments generate? And which of the four tournaments is the most lucrative?
How do Grand Slams make their money?
Despite each tournament only being played over a fortnight, Grand Slams are bona fide money-printing machines.
They tend make their money through four main revenue streams: ticket sales, broadcast rights, sponsorship and hospitality. Tickets usually bring in the most cash for organisers, followed by TV rights, brand deals and then hospitality.
The sums that each of those four streams can fetch are vast. Last year’s US Open raked in $185m (£141m) in ticket sales alone, while sponsorship deals with corporate heavyweights like JPMorgan Chase, Emirates and American Express generated $123m for the tournament.
Most tend to meet their costs easily, with plenty of room for profit. Taking the US Open as an example again, the bumper TV deals and expensive tickets helped organisers at Flushing Meadows to rake in a reported $514m (£389m). At the same time they had to dish out just $259.2m in expenses, helping them to hundreds of millions of dollars in operating profit.
Where this money goes also varies between majors.
Most are staged jointly by the local tennis authority – in the US Open’s case, the United States Tennis Association (USTA) – and tennis’s world governing body, the International Tennis Federation (ITF), with the two bodies sharing the proceeds.
Wimbledon is the exception, and takes place at what is technically a private members club – the All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC). The club is then responsible for where that money goes, with almost all of it heading to the LTA, the governing body for British tennis.
How much money does the Australian Open make?
Of all the Grand Slams, the Australian Open is arguably in the most precarious financial position.
Ahead of this year’s tournament, director Craig Tiley was forced to defend the health the tournament’s finances, after Victoria – the state where Melbourne is located – spent tens of millions of dollars bailing out Tennis Australia during the pandemic.
But according to a recent report from Nielsen, it is a major contributor to the Aussie economy – the biggest of any sporting event in Australia.
Over the past 10 years the tournament is believed to have contributed AU$3.14bn (1.61bn) to the state of Victoria’s economy, and supports 2,341 full-time jobs, the Nielsen report said.
One area where the Grand Slam excels is the keen focus it puts on events and festivities around the tennis itself. It hosts a music festival alongside the tournament tickets to which are not much more than the price of a ground pass.
The festival – and its comparatively cheap ground pass – meant that over 1m people attended this year’s tournament.
How much money does the French Open make?
While the second Grand Slam of the calendar year, which takes place in June at Paris’s Roland-Garros, fetches smaller numbers than the US Open or Wimbledon, they are not to be sniffed at.
Proceedings in Paris generate revenue well into the hundreds of millions of Euros, with its TV rights valued at an estimated €150m and its ticket sales generating roughly €80m.
Add to that the – as yet unreported – revenue it will generate from big name corporate partners like BNP Paribas, Lacoste, Rolex, Renault and many more, and the sums start to add up.
How much money does Wimbledon make?
The AELTC oversees the running of the tournament, but almost all the spoils are dished out to the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA), who then funnel it into developing the game in the UK.
The allure of the grass and the racing green means that Wimbledon is likely the second largest slam in terms of revenue and one of Britain’s most lucrative sporting events.
And while the numbers from this year’s tournament are yet to be published, the AELTC’s income from last year’s Championships alone hit £380.2m, a rise of £33.6m on the 2022 figure and roughly £200m on the previous decade.
The club shop alone generated more than £10m for the AELTC, which was one of the only major sporting institutions to take out pandemic insurance before the Covid-19 outbreak that paid out £140m in 2020.
The income is also notable because the number of tickets sold is considerably lower than other majors. Wimbledon welcomed 532,651 people through its gates last year, which pales in comparison to other slams despite having been a record for the tournament.
The tournament’s figures have been massaged by the decision in 2022 to open up the middle Sunday to matches, having previously been kept free as a rest day that was only used to ease backlogs caused by bad weather.
The move not only allowed the club to sell an extra day of tickets, but also TV rights and hospitality, all of which allowed the tournament to dole out nearly £50m to the LTA.
How much money does the US Open make?
The US Open is the commercial juggernaut of the Grand Slam calendar.
The aforementioned figures – revenue north of half a billion dollars helping it to hundreds of millions of in profit – dwarf the likes of the French and Australian Opens and make up 89 per cent of the USTA’s total revenue.
And as with Wimbledon, the body then invests those funds into the game across the country, helping to explain why the United States has five players in the top 20 of both the men’s and women’s world rankings.
The tournament’s surface also allows it to host qualifiers at Flushing Meadows before the tournament begins in earnest, which it further monetises with exhibition matches.
The extended playing time means the competition competes with Australian Open on attendance figures, drawing a record 957,000 people in the tournament’s 2023 iteration. It is targeting 1m this year.