The Top Line - Cricket, tennis, surfing and the commercial future of equestrian
Brisbane 2032 is six years away. The lead-up to a home Olympic Games is historically a period of significant growth in sport, and a meaningful moment to think about commercial direction. This article looks at how cricket, tennis, surfing and global show jumping built their commercial models, and what they suggest for the future of Australian equestrian.
In six years' time, Brisbane will host the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The lead-up to a home Olympics is historically a period of significant growth in sports participation, sponsorship and infrastructure investment. The years that follow can shape the commercial trajectory of a sport for a generation.
That makes now a useful moment to think about how Australian equestrian could prepare for and capitalise on the opportunity. This piece looks at how four sports built their commercial models, and what they suggest for the future of Australian equestrian.
Most national sporting bodies in Australia operate as not-for-profit organisations. A commercial model in this context is not about becoming a for-profit business. It is the strategic framework that allows a not-for-profit sport to generate revenue, build financial sustainability and direct that revenue back into its sporting and community purpose.
Cricket
For much of its history, cricket was focused primarily on existing fans rather than broader consumer audiences. Traditional formats ran for hours or days, and were often played during working hours. Games were not traditionally designed as mass-market entertainment products.
The major turning point came with Kerry Packer’s World Series Cricket in the late 1970s. Built specifically for television audiences, it introduced night matches, coloured uniforms and significantly enhanced broadcast production. Cricket was reframed from a traditional sporting contest into a more accessible entertainment product designed for viewers at home.
The next major shift came with the launch of the Big Bash League in 2011. Short-format T20 cricket made the sport faster, simpler and more family-friendly, opening it to audiences beyond traditional cricket followers. As audience reach expanded, commercial revenue followed through broadcasting, sponsorship, streaming, ticketing and hospitality.
Cricket Australia generated approximately $455 million in revenue in FY25. The lesson is that commercial growth often follows audience growth. Sports that deliberately design products around audience experience, accessibility and entertainment value are more likely to attract broadcasters, sponsors and investment over time.
Surfing
Before the World Surf League (WSL), professional surfing was run by the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP), which operated the global tour through a governing-body model. Surfing already had a large global audience and strong lifestyle appeal, but its commercial value was fragmented across separate events, sponsors and broadcasters. There was no single commercial product that sponsors, broadcasters or investors could engage with at scale.
In 2013, ZoSea Media Holdings acquired the ASP and transformed it into the privately owned World Surf League. The WSL consolidated media rights, events, content and sponsorship into one global commercial platform designed for digital audiences, broadcast and brand partnerships. This unified platform product attracted non-endemic brands such as Samsung, Jeep and Airbnb into the sport.
The lesson is that commercial value grows when a sport is consolidated into a single product. By packaging media rights, events, content and sponsorship into one global platform, the WSL created something audiences could follow easily and sponsors and broadcasters could engage with at scale. That structure expanded audiences, attracted new commercial partners and increased investment flowing into the broader surfing ecosystem.
Tennis
Tennis Australia generated approximately $693 million in revenue in FY25, much of it driven by the Australian Open. The Australian Open operates as far more than a tennis tournament. It is a major entertainment, hospitality, tourism and media platform built around a flagship sporting event.
Over time, Tennis Australia deliberately expanded the event beyond traditional tennis audiences through night sessions, live entertainment, premium hospitality, food and lifestyle experiences, digital content and global broadcast distribution. Its 2024 broadcast deal with Channel Nine, reportedly worth $425 million over five years, reflects the scale of the product it has built.
The Australian Open now functions as the commercial flywheel for the broader sport. Revenue generated through media rights, sponsorship, ticketing and hospitality supports participation pathways, infrastructure, coaching and grassroots tennis nationally. The lesson is the value of building one flagship product exceptionally well. A sufficiently strong flagship event can organise and fund a much larger sporting ecosystem around it.
Global show jumping
The Longines Global Champions Tour (LGCT) is a privately owned global show jumping circuit founded in 2006 by Jan Tops, an Olympic gold medallist. It operates as a commercial series of international events across major global cities, separate from the traditional federation-led competition structure.
The tour runs a fully integrated commercial model, including significant prize money, long-term title sponsorship (Longines), broadcast and streaming distribution, and premium ticketing and hospitality products. In 2026, Frank McCourt launched the Premier Jumping League (PJL), a separate US$300 million venture partnered with the producers of Drive to Survive. The product is a curated international circuit. The buyers are sponsors, host cities, broadcasters and team owners. The FEI and national federations continue alongside. The lesson is that a globally connected commercial product is already operating in equestrian, and growing, with multiple operators investing in the model.
Learnings from the case studies
What makes a sport commercially successful at scale? Three conditions emerge consistently across the case studies.
Commercial scale is not driven solely by participation numbers or sporting tradition, but by how effectively a sport is packaged for audiences and buyers.
First, the most successful commercial sports products are designed around audience experience and not just participation. Cricket’s evolution into T20 and the Big Bash League, and surfing’s transformation into a broadcast-led global tour, both reflect deliberate shifts toward formats that are easier to consume, distribute and monetise.
Second, commercial growth accelerates when fragmented assets are consolidated into a coherent product. Whether through governing bodies or private operators, value increases when media rights, events, sponsorship and content are packaged into a single, scalable offering. The result is one entry point into the sport for sponsors, broadcasters and investors, rather than a fragmented landscape of separate deals.
Third, flagship events or global circuits often sit at the centre of the model. The Australian Open, the BBL, the WSL Championship Tour and the LGCT all function as anchor products that generate disproportionate commercial value and organise broader ecosystem funding around them.
The structural question of who delivered the product varied across the case studies. The governing body, a private operator, or some combination of both, could each deliver successfully. What was consistent across them was the clarity of the product itself.
What this could mean for Australian equestrian
These patterns are relevant for Australian equestrian. Australia is a small market by global standards, with a relatively small population spread across a continent and high costs of horse ownership and movement. Domestic-only commercial scale is unlikely to match the mass participation sports.
However, equestrian already operates as a globally connected sport. Horses, riders, breeding, coaching and competition move internationally as a matter of course. Major circuits like the FEI World Cup, the LGCT and the PJL operate across borders. This puts Australian equestrian closer to a node within a global system than a self-contained national market.
Three implications follow from this.
Connect Australia to the global ecosystem. Commercial value for Australian equestrian is most likely to grow through how the sport connects to international circuits, audiences and global commercial activity, alongside its domestic participation base.
Design events for global visibility. Broadcast quality, storytelling, digital content and sponsor integration are the tools of modern commercial sport. Athlete-led content, short-form digital storytelling and direct-to-fan distribution are increasingly how sports build international audiences and commercial relationships, not just through traditional broadcast. Australian events that are designed to be valuable to global audiences function as part of a wider sport landscape rather than as isolated national competitions. Australia also has distinctive cultural and geographic strengths to draw on. Its relationship with horses sits within an agricultural and regional heritage that does not exist in quite the same way anywhere else, and there is real opportunity in shaping how that identity is communicated to international audiences.
The foundations and the commercial layer grow together. Participation pathways, education, coach and official development, welfare and industry capability are what give a sport its long-term strength. As the commercial side of a sport develops, it generates the revenue that allows these foundations to be invested in further. The result, over time, is a sport that is well-resourced at every level.
The commercial future of equestrian in Australia sits within a global sport that is still being shaped. The next six years, in the lead-up to Brisbane 2032, are an opportunity to think creatively about how Australia connects to that future. There is real opportunity for private enterprise, sporting organisations, athletes, event organisers and the wider industry community to be part of what comes next.
A final note
I have spent most of my professional life working at the intersection of law, business and the equine industry. This piece is one contribution to a much larger conversation that many people across the industry are having. If the themes in this piece are of interest, you can reach me through PURE Equine Law or on LinkedIn. I would genuinely welcome the conversation.
I also write The Sports Board - a Substack on Australian sport: how it's governed, funded and being reformed in the lead-up to Brisbane 2032. You can read more and subscribe here.
This article is general commentary on sport in Australia. It is not legal, financial or professional advice.
