Australian Open

Every January, the Australian Open welcomes over a million tennis fans and more than 800 players to Melbourne Park. Behind the iconic blue hard courts is a 12,000-strong workforce powered by smart tech and a culture of continuous improvement.

Since 2021, SafetyCulture has proudly partnered with the Australian Open to deliver a world-class event. From creating memorable fan experiences to managing over 50 courts and cutting-edge facilities, it’s all about teamwork and preparation. 

With SafetyCulture in the hands of every worker, the event seamlessly connects teams across retail, construction, sustainability, and hospitality—and unites frontline staff and senior management.

Behind the scenes of a Grand Slam

Stretching a little over 2km from end to end, getting the precinct tournament ready is a huge process that starts months in advance.

In 2024, over 1 million tennis fans entered the gates. “The event continues to get bigger. The redevelopment continues to get bigger. And the footprint of the Australian Open continues to grow.” says Lee Ross, Manager of Safety, Compliance and Emergency Management. 

With a workforce of 12,000 accredited staff, and around 5,000 on-site at any given time, every worker must feel empowered and confident to make the right calls.

Keeping things in check with court services

Millions of eyeballs worldwide are on the players, so the Court Services team needs to ensure each court is in good working order for every play. 

They use Inspections at the start and end of each day and after every match. Every court is logged as an Asset. Scanning each court’s unique barcode, they’re able to see at a glance run sheets, photos of best-practice setups, player seating charts, towel placement, and court maintenance guides.

Through Assets, the team can also capture and digitally mark up any court issues that could potentially affect a player. 

“Before SafetyCulture, we were using paper checklists and just ticking boxes,” says Todd Woodbridge, Match Operations Lead. Now they have those checks and reports compiled digitally on court day by day so that supervisors can go back into the SafetyCulture platform, compare each report, and see how the courts are performing individually in a more streamlined way.

Training up a new army of ballkids

The Australian Open is one of the world’s largest sporting events, but it wouldn’t run without the ball kids. 

“To be a ballkid, there’s a lot of things to remember,” says Elise Mace, Ballkid Strategy and Operations Lead. “There are skills like rolling the ball, serving the players, maintaining court movement, and concentrating on their job on the court.” On top of that, ball kids need to understand the basics of how tennis and scoring works. 

Ball kids are part of the digital-first generation, so an interactive, mobile learning platform helps to make these skills stick. This year, over 400 young people from all walks of life are being upskilled to take on the role. Through Training, lessons incorporate videos and gamification to help them brush up on techniques and step onto the court with confidence.

Cleaning up the act for a sustainable future

As the tournament grows, the Sustainability team is committed to reducing the event’s environmental footprint year on year. 

To improve visibility over on-site recycling centers, they use customized Inspection templates to assess contamination levels in waste streams, helping to reduce the event’s environmental footprint. This way, managers have the data they need to make quick, informed decisions, helping them improve things continuously.

Trash-talking waste warriors

The friendly ‘Trash Talkers’ are responsible for helping patrons separate and sort their waste into the correct bins. Tennis Australia is audited for all their waste, and any rubbish disposed of incorrectly (i.e. contaminated) means a penalty for them. 

Before using SafetyCulture, staff had to manually check on foot which bins were overflowing and needed emptying.

Now, they’re able to get end-to-end visibility into its waste management zones from head office. Using Analytics, the team can track where the hotspots are and the percentages of recycling bin contamination. This way, they can locate the busiest bins and create follow-up Actions for the team on the ground, which could include sending more resources, staff, and Trash Talkers to educate patrons on proper waste management. 

Once the event is over, they can analyze the data they’ve gathered, report on their impact, and spot areas for improvement for next year.

Empowering retail to serve fans seamlessly

Merchandise is a key part of the Australian Open fan experience—because what’s a visit without a signature cap? Managing all of the retail outlets across the grounds is no walk in the park. The Retail Team needs real-time visibility into their stock, operations, and staff so that everyone can feel responsible for making confident, data-informed decisions.

“Even if you’re new and don’t fully understand compliance requirements, SafetyCulture makes it simple,” says Jonathan Lee, Retail Manager. The platform supports every aspect of their operations: onboarding is streamlined through Training, while Inspections replace paper-based open and close checklists, ensuring nothing is overlooked. Actions notify the team when stock is running low, avoiding disruptions during busy trade periods, and Heads Up keeps staff aligned with real-time updates and briefings.

“The system itself is extremely easy to use,” says Jonathan Lee, Retail Manager. SafetyCulture helps remove the stress of remembering what needs to happen so they can focus on what’s most important — the customer.

Checking on their customer experience

The customer experience team constantly roams the grounds of the Australian Open, helping to manage fans to give them an unforgettable experience.

The SafetyCulture platform is their on-the-go solution for logging customer feedback. With it, they create customer surveys and easily spot trends and opportunities to improve the customer experience.

Shaping strong leaders and teams

At an event of this scale, senior leaders can’t have eyes and ears everywhere at once, which makes getting the right staff and volunteers into key roles each year so important.

The Australian Open’s Training program equips every team member—leaders, managers, supervisors and division heads—with the skills and knowledge they need to run teams and operations smoothly. It sets clear expectations, defines the AO experience standards, and helps ensure all 12,000 team members are prepared from day one, ready to meet their promise of putting on their best grand slam yet. 

With an event that moves quickly, real-time visibility into team performance is essential. Using Inspections, leaders can assess staff and volunteer performance during and after the event. Having this data centralized in SafetyCulture helps to identify and reward standout performers and spot areas where additional training is needed.

This feedback loop helps recognize and develop top talent and lifts team standards, setting the foundation for future leaders. “SafetyCulture has transformed how we train and manage our teams,” says Jess Oliver. “It helps us recognize talent and build the next generation of leaders.” With deeper insights into staff performance, leaders can retain the best team members year after year, minimizing turnover and setting everyone up for success.

Keen to keep rallying? See what else we’re doing with the Australian Open

• Everything you need to know about our partnership with the AO
• The teams behind the scenes: preparing for the Australian Open
• Explore the SafetyCulture Training tool the ballkids used to be the very best