Are Australian Open tickets becoming too expensive?

(Getty/Wendell Teodoro)

It's crazy to think about just how fast the year has gone, but within the blink of an eye, we're nearly at the end of September.

But more importantly, for Australian tennis fans, it's one day closer to being able to watch a major in their own country.

Despite still being over three months away from the first round of the Australian Open, there are only three weeks until tickets go on sale.

Unlike Wimbledon, there's no need to queue up for days on end or enter a lottery to get your hands on a ticket. However, in recent years, it has started to feel like we need to win the lottery to afford going to the tennis on multiple days.

Don't get me wrong, the ground passes are still somewhat reasonably priced, and for the first few days, you certainly get your bang for buck as there are stars galore playing everywhere during the early rounds, regardless of which court you attend.

But as the process of elimination kicks in, slowly but surely, the ground passes suddenly lose value as the smaller arenas shift their focus to the doubles; meanwhile, the bigger matches are behind a paywall called Rod Laver Arena.

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Now, there are sessions at Rod Laver that are somewhat affordable for the average sports fan, but the problem? A fair few of those sessions are held during the week, smack bang in the middle of a workday.

It leaves the working Australian the choice: take a day off and pay for a reasonable ticket, sell a kidney and go to the night session or stay at home and watch it for free on TV.

It's a shame because it feels like in every one of those situations, you end up losing something.

Which begs the question: are the Australian Open tickets becoming too expensive?

The failing grades I got in my high school economics classes will tell you I'm no economist, but the one thing I did take away is that the supply and demand curve is important in all types of business, and the Australian Open is no exception.

With just 15,000 seats, straight off the bat (or should I say racquet), supply and demand are on opposite sides, as there are, for sure, many more than 15,000 fans wanting to get a hold of a seat.

When you subtract the corporate seats, the number gets even smaller, so when you also factor in the small capacity, it does mean that in order to turn a profit, the tickets do need to be set at a certain price.

But these past few years have started to feel like the prices are getting out of hand.

In 2025, tickets for Rod Laver during week 1 of the Open ranged from $101-$674 for the day sessions and, for the night, $93-$1018.

For the following week, the prices were raised to $126-$949 for the morning sessions and $210-$2000 for the evening.

Finally, for the last two days of the tournament, for the women's singles final, tickets ranged from $399-$1799, while the men's were a crazy $1899-$10,000.

So, in week two of the event, when essentially all of the matches are being played at Rod Laver, the cheapest ticket you could snap up was $126, and once again, that was for the morning sessions.

Even if you wanted to just get a ground pass for the second week, this year it would have set you back $90, which, considering there isn't much to see on the outside courts, you're basically paying for the atmosphere around the arenas.

The other issue is that a fair number of seats at Rod Laver are reserved for hospitality packages, VIPs, sponsors and the like, and even if they are not used, they are not released to the public.

Often this leads to empty seats in prime positions for the earlier games, as those who have access to them can't or don't want to go during the morning sessions.

It's a common thing in Australian sport. Year after year, it seems that the number of real fans who attend the AFL grand final gets smaller and smaller as the corporates and sponsors get more than their fair share of seats.

The only difference is that the MCG holds 85,000 more people, so while not ideal, the AFL can get away with it, but if more seats at Rod Laver are taken away for hospitality and sponsors, it's only going to drive up the price for the tickets available to the public.

Unfortunately, it seems as if every year it's only getting more and more expensive to attend the Australian Open, which, considering the 'vibe' you get from it nowadays, is that it's a rowdy and fun environment for all, the prices don't really match that.

It's not just a tennis thing when it comes to ticket prices rising; sports, concerts and events of all sorts are seeing the same thing happen as your average person is now unable to afford it.

Or, the tickets are made affordable, but it's purely down to luck if you can navigate through the various ticket-selling sites and wait for who knows how long to get through, only to find out that once you are in, all tickets have sold out as scalpers snapped them up and are now reselling them at triple the price.

Neither scenario is perfect, so to combat them, ticket sellers have introduced what they call "dynamic pricing", which was used at the 2025 Australian Open.

This is when, instead of having a fixed price for every ticket, the price can change based on demand.

So, if tickets begin to sell quickly once they become available, then the price for the remaining tickets will begin to increase.

To give an example, let's say that the base price for the 2026 Australian Open men's final is $2000. If a lot of people jump on and buy tickets as soon as they go on sale, it is likely to rise.

Then let's say, like we are all predicting, the final ends up being Carlos Alcaraz vs Jannik Sinner. If there were any tickets left, there is a high chance the price would skyrocket, as it is by far the most desirable match-up to watch.

It can work in the customer's favour, though.

Using the same example, if an upset or injury were to occur and one of, or both of Sinner or Alcaraz ended up missing the final, and suddenly we have an unbalanced matchup which looks likely to be a short three-set final, ticket prices would likely decrease and so would demand.

But the reality is, when Rod Laver's capacity is 15,000, demand will always far outweigh supply, so with this in mind, it's incredibly unlikely that prices would go down. So really, dynamic pricing actually hurts the customer for the Australian Open.

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Understandably, profits need to be made; that's essential for any business and at the end of the day, the Australian Open and Tennis Australia are a business, but at what point does it start to become greedy?

At this rate, in 20 years, you'll have to pick between paying rent and eating for a month or getting to see a tennis match at Rod Laver.

Unfortunately, with 2025 setting the record for total attendance at the Australian Open, clearly the prices haven't deterred the masses, and while the overall figure of 1.2 million people flooding through the gates looks great, there's no doubt that many more elected not to go because of the high prices.

So let's hope that the ticket prices start declining or, at the very least, the rises halt.

But if the last few years are anything to go by, they're only likely to continue increasing.

Surf Coast Racquets aims to provide tennis and squash players across Geelong and the Surf Coast with a wide range of competitively priced racquets, shoes, accessories and restrings.

In addition to this, all of our staff are tennis or squash players who can provide for all your needs.

Visit: www.surfcoastracquets.com.au