20m euros, Tiriac's Madrid tournament

Madrid Open, the most important tennis tournament that businessman Ion Tiriac has been organising since 2002, cost 20 million euros, exclusively raised from sponsors. “I wanted to make an elitist tournament and everybody admits we have succeeded,” says Ion Tiriac, for whom Mutua Madrilena Madrid Open is the only tournament whose organisation he has been involved in. Apart from Madrid Open, the businessman owns another two tournaments – Bucharest’s BCR Open (organised yearly by Bogdan Enoiu) and another tournament in Dubai (which Tiriac has leased out until 2010, when he will organise another auction to lease it out for a few more years), alongside another one in Austria, which he sold last year. “These tournaments are a very valuable business for me, and this tournament doesn’t have a price, at least for the time being,” says Ion Tiriac. With money attracted from sponsors covering the costs of the competition, the revenues collected (from ticket sales i.e.) will become profit. “I cannot say exactly how much I will collect, I will see on Monday: I may be asked to increase prizes (the tournament has prizes worth 8 million euros), additional costs may arise, so if Monday I go on holiday, it means I made a profit.” The businessman says usually 75% of revenues derived from a tournament come from loge box ticket sales, while the rest come from the remaining seats, which have to be affordable for everyone (depending on the category and on the number of days, the ticket prices range from 50 to 800 euros).