A little over a month ago, a series of meetings of tennis’ top executives ended in acrimony. Grand Slam tournament officials have accused tour leaders of undermining their efforts to reshape the sport by plotting a series of indirect deals with Saudi Arabia.
Today, another summit is about to start.
After weeks of virtual discussions, leaders of the Grand Slam and men’s and women’s tennis tours will meet this week in London to try to forge some sort of compromise that will resolve a series of challenges facing the game.
These problems essentially boil down to this:
How can they bring more money into tennis and increase interest amid increasing competition, without overburdening players who demand a simplified schedule and compensation comparable to their much wealthier counterparts in other sports?
The ultimate solution, people connected to the discussions say, could even result in significant changes or even the end of the Paris Masters – a high-profile indoor men’s tournament known as “Bercy” – in favor of a new event in Saudi Arabia.
At the latest summit with the sport’s top executives, Gilles Moretton, president of the French Tennis Federation, the FFT, owner of Roland-Garros and the Bercy tournament, said he would not let Bercy be an obstacle to peace in sport, opening the door to a possible compromise.
The FFT press relations department did not respond to requests for comment.
Reporting for this story is based on interviews with several people involved in and familiar with the ongoing discussions. They requested anonymity so as not to jeopardize their professional relationships. All described the situation as fluid with an ultimate solution, if it can be found, still some way off even with Moretton’s offer of the olive branch of Bercy.
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Tennis, which is run by at least seven separate organizations, has long been plagued by conflict between rival groups seeking to protect their specific interests.
This latest civil war has ostensibly pitted the Grand Slam tournaments against the men’s and women’s circuits, but primarily against Andrea Gaudenzi, the president of the ATP Tour.
The Grand Slams – Wimbledon and the French, US and Australian Opens – want to create a premium circuit that would resemble Formula 1. This would include their competitions, 10 high-level outdoor mixed events and a final of end of season for the best men and women. It would start in January and end in early November.
Only the top 100 players would qualify for the premium circuit. Another series of lower-tier tournaments would exist largely as a qualifying competition for the premium circuit, although premium circuit players could participate in these events to receive appearance fees and match practice – and for make it more attractive to fans.
The plan existed largely as a timetable and a series of consultant reports predicting increased funds from sponsorships and increased payments for television and streaming rights. What it still lacks is concrete financial support, a major sticking point for the owners of the high-profile tournaments that the Grand Slam wants to include in its premium circuit. What it does have is an appeal to both players and fans, as a respite from a difficult schedule to follow on the field and on screen due to its sometimes illogical jumps around the world and of his incessant progress of matches.
This venture would be a big boost for the Grand Slams, especially now as they try to move forward on other projects. The USTA, owner of the US Open, has begun seeking approval for another major renovation of the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, which would include construction of a new player performance center, a reception and, ultimately, the renovation of the Arthur Ashe stadium. . Wimbledon is pursuing a massive expansion at a nearby golf course.
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On the other hand, iGaudenzi, the president of the ATP Tour, is largely in favor of a status quo that many players find unacceptable, and this is ahead of Gaudenzi’s plan to add another high-level tournament to the calendar, probably in Saudi Arabia. Its opponent of the premium plan would be its limitations in presenting tennis as a remarkable sport, 24/7/365, one of the few truly global spectacles.
This tournament is at the center of Gaudenzi’s promise to invest around $1 billion in tennis in Saudi Arabia, a country with a sad record of human rights violations, laws that oppress women and where Homosexuality can result in a death sentence. The kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund, is one of the leading bidders for the event, and the women’s tour is likely to join if the Saudis win the auction, which those involved say should be completed this spring.
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This month, the women’s tour announced a lucrative but controversial three-year deal with the Saudi Sports Ministry to stage its season-ending WTA Finals in Riyadh.
Even though Gaudenzi’s plan comes with an injection of cash, mainly from the sale of the new tournament’s license, critics say it lacks a real plan for sustainable future growth. Nothing would change in the fragmented sports sector, in which tournaments compete for sponsorships and television contracts.
His decision is akin to a sports league selling an expansion franchise to a new city. Only, in this case, Gaudenzi is essentially selling a slot in the calendar without the possibility of creating more weeks in the year.
That issue sparked this latest war between the Grand Slam tournament and Gaudenzi, who last summer tried to strike a deal to host a tournament in Saudi Arabia at the start of the season. Early January is the only month of the professional tennis season where there is no Grand Slam or high profile event on either tour and the Saudi climate would allow such an event to take place. take place.
A high-profile January tournament in Saudi Arabia for men and women would likely kill the Australian Open lead-up events in Australia and New Zealand that Tennis Australia, owner and organizer of the Australian Open, controls largely. In response, Tennis Australia chief executive Craig Tiley pushed for the creation of the premium circuit, which could deal a major blow to Gaudenzi’s ATP Tour and scores at lower-tier tournaments that are not part of the premium circuit.
An obvious compromise, people involved in the negotiations say, would be to find a way to hold a tournament in Saudi Arabia, raise about a billion dollars and integrate it into a premium tour, with the money from that tour providing support for smaller tournaments.
But if a Saudi tournament had not taken place in January, there would only be two other months where Saudi weather would permit it – immediately after the Australian Open in February, when both tours play events in Dubai and that the women will play a tournament in Doha. , or in October, at Place de Bercy.
(Top photo: Julian Finney/Getty Images)