The Tiger Effect: Aussie Open sells 3,000 tickets in two hours

Fun fact I didn’t realize until today: When Tiger Woods was hooking up with Mistress No. 1, Rachel Uchitel, during the Australian Open in 2009, his mother was staying at the same hotel. Now that’s sleazy. But that little nugget — and all the controversy surrounding Woods since — has done nothing to restrict the appetite of Aussie Open organizers to have Tiger back in 2010. As we told you on Tuesday, Tiger has announced that he’s indeed returning to the Australian Open, the site of his last tourney win. And when tickets went on sale today in Australia, there was a bit of a feeding frenzy. They sold more than 3,000 in two hours; despite a 10 percent rise in ticket prices. And the exclusive reserved grandstand is already almost sold out for the final day.
Helping grease the wheels for Tiger’s return was his $3 million appearance fee (delivered by Fredo in a suitcase), a portion of which was ponied up by the taxpayers of Victoria, the state in which Melbourne is located. And therein lies the new controversy.

The Victorian government refuses to divlulge how much of the $3 mil the taxpayers are chipping in. From the Melbourne Herald Sun:

But Premier John Brumby said Woods’ personal life was private and, although he had made poor judgments, he would be here to play golf.

Mr. Brumby refused to apologise for using taxpayers’ money to lure Woods, claiming it would be well spent.

“It will be a brilliant event for our state at what is one of the greatest golf courses anywhere in the world,” he said.

The Sun reports that last Aussie Open drew more than 107,000 fans over four days, with an estimated economic impact of $18.4 million in direct spending at hotels, bars and restaurants. The overall impact on businesses was estimated at $34 million. How much of that is directly attributable to Woods is impossible to estimate, but it’s a fair to assume that the $3 mil fee was well worth it.
Whether such a fee is proper is another matter. May feel it cheapens the sport, and that both Tiger and the Victorian government should be above such things.
The Sydney Morning Herald:

Victorian Tourism Minister Tim Holding said revealing the figure would give interstate governments and other locations the chance to match or exceed the bid and lure the star from Victoria.

”[Tiger's fee] won’t be made public,” he told Radio 3AW.

Sample comment on the Morning Herald message board:

* How can the government justify Tigers attendance fee when it can’t afford to put staff on all our train stations? Am I the only one who thinks this is MADNESS? — Carlton Crew

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Tiger Woods sells 3000 tickets to Australian Masters in one morning [Melbourne Herald Sun]
He’s back: Tiger returns to Melbourne [Sydney Morning Herald]