Australian Open 2010 Lose Major Sponsor Qantas

It has been announced that Qantas will be ending their 21 year sponsorship agreement with the Australian Open. A spokesman for the company confirmed this development but did not exactly say if it was the global economic crisis that caused this.

This is a huge hit for the financial situation of the Australian Open and Tennis Australia. For the past few months, major sponsors such as MasterCard, Garnier and GE Money, have also dropped its sponsorship agreement with the Australian Open.

However on the upside Kia Motors has remained on as a major sponsor for the tournament with Rolex and Lacoste also staying on board.

The economic crisis has been reported to not have hit Australia, but as these companies are all based internationally there is going to be an affect.  This still makes me think how hard it must be these days to get the major sponsors on board when more people will visit The Tennis Times this year than attended the Australian Open in Melbourne!

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