The Australian Open will cap daily allocations of its A$49 Ground Passes during the opening week of the 2027 main draw, the first time the tournament has limited its cheapest and most popular ticket. The move follows a record-breaking 2026 edition that drew 1,368,043 spectators across three weeks and left casual fans facing long queues to reach the outside courts.
Organiser Tennis Australia announced the change on Tuesday, tying it to ticket sales opening earlier than ever for the 2027 tournament, which runs 11–31 January at Melbourne Park.
What a Ground Pass actually gets you
The Ground Pass is the entry-level ticket to the Australian Open precinct, and it is not a seat inside the main stadiums. It grants access to the wider Melbourne Park grounds and to the outside show courts, where holders can roam freely between matches rather than being tied to a single arena. In the first week of a Grand Slam, that means a full slate of first- and second-round singles and doubles across the smaller courts — often the best value on the tennis calendar for fans who want volume and variety over a single marquee match.
Crucially, a Ground Pass does not include reserved seating in Rod Laver Arena, Margaret Court Arena or John Cain Arena; those require separate arena tickets. The pass also covers the precinct’s live entertainment, dining and family attractions, which is a large part of why it draws casual and first-time visitors.
Tennis Australia Chief Commercial Officer Cedric Cornelis described the Ground Pass as one of the best-value sporting tickets anywhere, noting the price has not risen since 2019. He said demand for 2027 — and for week one in particular — was expected to be “stronger than ever,” which is what prompted the cap.
What is changing
For the first time, the number of Ground Passes sold per day will be limited during the opening week of the main draw. Tennis Australia has framed this as a way to protect the on-site experience after crowding problems: a spike in attendances in recent years contributed to long waits to get onto the outside courts and raised concerns that the day out was becoming less enjoyable.
The key caveat for planners is that Tennis Australia has not published the daily cap figure. There is no confirmed number of Ground Passes available per day, no stated cut-off, and no detail yet on whether the limit varies across the first week. Fans should treat the cap as real but unquantified until the tournament releases specifics.
The 2026 attendance context underlines why the change is happening: alongside the overall 1,368,043 record, the tournament reported 217,999 people through the gates during AO Opening Week alone — the free-to-attend lead-in that funnels heavily onto the outside courts.
How to approach buying tickets
If a first-week Ground Pass is the goal, early is the operative word. Tennis Australia has moved the sale forward and layered several access windows:
- Accessibility Pre-sale: 28 July – 4 August, giving fans with accessibility needs priority.
- Mastercard Pre-sale: opens 5 August.
- AO Extras Pre-sale: 6–12 August.
- Public on-sale: from 12.00pm (AEST) on Thursday 13 August, via Ticketmaster.
Early-bird Ground Pass pricing is available until 12.59pm on 30 November 2026, so there is a financial reason as well as an availability reason to book ahead. With a daily cap now in place and no published allocation, the safe assumption is that popular first-week days could sell out — the risk is higher than in previous years, when Ground Passes were effectively unlimited on the day.
For anyone whose plan hinges on a specific date in the opening week, the practical takeaway is to buy in an early window rather than turning up on the day, and to have arena tickets in mind as a fallback if a Ground Pass day is exhausted.
The 2026 tournament, for context, was won by Carlos Alcaraz in the men’s singles and Elena Rybakina in the women’s — a headline pairing that helped drive the record gate the new policy is now responding to.
