The Australian Financial Review\u2019s Ross Durkin reports <\/a>Tiley shared his plan for a complete transformation of the Melbourne major, which, if completed, would make it the biggest Slam spectacle in tennis.<\/p>\nTiley\u2019s AO renovation calls for a new stadium with traditional seating replaced by pod-style seating and drones serving concessions to fans would not have to leave their seats to order a beer.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s nothing worse than, there\u2019s a row of 20 people and your seat is number 21 and you\u2019re standing with your hands full and everyone\u2019s got to stand up and lean back and you walk along sideways and try not to spill anything, so that\u2019s got to transform as well,\u201d Tiley said in comments published by the Australian Financial Review.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, building a new stadium with pod-style seating so you come in or out of your own pod of six or eight, you walk onto site, you\u2019ve already purchased your ticket and that\u2019s the last transaction you ever have. Your security\u2019s already been checked and you don\u2019t even know that\u2019s happening because that will probably be when you leave your hotel.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 2026 Australian Open has shattered attendance records so far this month.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The tournament has also made some technological improvements, including affixing red lights to the net posts and side of the chair umpire\u2019s seat that are lit up when a shot lands out.<\/p>\n
Tiley wants to eliminate all officials on court to create a more dramatic atmosphere and shift the spotlight solely on the players.<\/p>\n
The AO Chief sees the event evolving into a more theatrical spectacle, citing Naomi Osaka\u2019s dramatic entrance in full ivory costume, hat and veil as the direction he sees the Melbourne major following in the future.<\/p>\n
\u201cNaomi was a good example of that last night and the beginning of that journey,\u201d Tiley said. \u201cMy objective eventually is to have no officiating on the court, it\u2019s all done behind the scenes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHave a conductor at the net, maybe in the box, just as part of the show, so its only about the battle of the two individuals with the focus on the sky and the sea and the blue of Melbourne, Australia, because most of the world are stuck in white and snow and cold weather.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Australian Open has a reputation as the most fan-friendly of the four Grand Slams. It will be intriguing to see if Tiley can realize his dreams of using technology to completely transform the tournament.<\/p>\n
A good start would include returning the printable draws and printable Order Of Play feature back to the official Australian Open website.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Richard Pagliaro | Thursday, January 22, 2026Photo credit: Jon Buckle\/ROLEX Tennis Australia Chief Craig Tiley has a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":392546,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":["post-427207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=427207"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427207\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/392546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=427207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=427207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=427207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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