Hopman prices to be reviewed
Hopman Cup organisers will review pricing after crowd numbers for Perth Arena tennis tournament fell by almost 20,000 this year.
About 84,000 people attended the eight-day tournament, which finished on Saturday, compared with a record attendance of 104,000 last year.
Tennis Australia events director Tom Larner said the crowd in Perth this year was still the second biggest in the event's history and last year's increase on 32,000 people was largely because of the "excitement" of its debut at the arena last year.
But organisers - who noted a number of empty seats at Perth Arena - would review ticket costs, which increased about $1 each this year, to try to boost numbers next year.
Ticket prices for a single non-finals session ranged from $34.90 to $89.90 for adults and $25.90 to $79.90 for children.
"Ticket prices increased less than CPI (but) it's something we'll continue to review because we want more people in the Arena," Mr Larner said. "The objective is to create a fantastic atmosphere in that Arena."
Mr Larner said organisers would also review the tier system for seating at the Arena and consider distributing the crowd differently to create the appearance of a fuller Arena next year.
The Hopman Cup is the only Australian tennis tournament where crowd numbers fell, after competitions in Brisbane, Sydney and the Australian Open all recorded a rise in ticket sales.
Mr Larner said Perth's 12,500-seat Arena was a lot bigger than other tournament venues. He said Tennis Australia was committed to keeping the Hopman Cup in Perth and did not believe the sudden drop in attendance numbers was the start of a downward trend.
Players competing this year included popular Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Australians Sam Stosur and Bernard Tomic.
Last year, Serbian world number two Novak Djokovic was one of the event's biggest drawcards.
Mr Larner did not believe the line-up was a factor in the fall in ticket sales.
Tourism Minister Liza Harvey said the event continued to showcase Perth as a tourist destination.
For the first time this year, every session of the Hopman Cup was broadcast live and free-to-air on 7mate.
