Australian Open has pandemic insurance—but needs to renew it

The Australian Open has pandemic insurance but will need to renew it before next year's event.

Tennis Australia CEO Craig Tiley, speaking to the Melbourne Age, said the tournament's policy runs for another three months and it is in talks to renew. That is considerably tougher to do during the current coronavirus pandemic.

"We had full insurance and pandemic insurance," he said. "We have two kinds of insurance—we have a reserve fund and then we purchased insurance on top of that.

"But now we're in discussions with the same insurer. And it's interesting. Because insurers need to make a decision—will they insure against a pandemic. Probably is now a good time to do it because the world's going to be ready for another one if there ever was one... the likelihood of that happening—the way the world's going to have to mobilize and stop it again—would be very unlikely.

But the potential for some disruption of next year's event is also higher, with the federation already planning to have play with no spectators if required. Tiley also said that the event would be willing to reschedule if required.

The only other event confirmed as having insurance against a pandemic is Wimbledon, which can reportedly collect up to $114 million following the cancellation of this year's event.

Tennis Australia also runs some ATP and WTA events in Australia prior to the Australian Open.