TENNIS and the CITY
The city name that pops up in ones mind if the US-Open Tennis Championship’s is mentioned is New York. Last of the Grand-Slams for this year, the ‘US-Open’ will be staged there in the first two weeks of September. In the run up to this major event, the cities in the North American continent are staging their own Championships. It is the most opportune time to popularise the name of the city through Tennis. It is said that in the rating of a city, a major Tennis event has a big weight to boost the city’s status.
The ‘Association of Tennis Professional’s (ATP) World Tour’ is classified according to the strength of the prize money. To make the event in the city more attractive, famous North American cities like Washington DC, Cincinnati, Montreal, North Carolina and New York have ‘linked’ their events as a circuit to increase the appeal. This makes the events run up to US-Open equivalent to ‘leagues’ of other sports. This is an idea fast catching up in the game, as it will keep names of these cities alive for a full calendar month.
While each of the events will have prize money of their own, in the final event of the circuit which is the US-Open, two cheques will be presented. One cheque is for winning the US-Open title and the other for the North American circuit performance. This way, they are able to attract more players from the top ten to play the entire circuit boosting the ratings of their cities.
Attraction of an identity
Why are cities eager to stage a Tennis event? The task of raising prize money, cost of running the event keeping the image of the city in view, paying for the franchise and other factors is a major managerial undertaking. What makes it worthwhile to indulge in such an effort and stage an event? It is for the publicity of the city.
The exposure the city gets globally, nationally, locally to keep the city name alive, is immense. This can really make the name of the city attractive for profitable ventures thereby increase the prospects of its citizens. In other words, a city stands to gain many folds of their expenditure by staging popular sporting events. In general, a high rating of any city will undoubtedly contribute to its socio-economic progress.
Popular cities means peace is prevailing. This is attractive for tourism, investment and other benefits. In recent times Dubai, Shanghai and Doha and a few others have come in par with the four original cities of Tennis – Melbourne, Paris, London and New York. While these four cities own the championships rights, new cities have to work out their rights to hold a Tennis event with the professional bodies of Tennis.
Franchise
As to exactly what the word ‘Franchise’ means in Tennis does not have a simple answer. Before the ‘open-era’ a city or for that matter even a club could host a tournament anytime and the good players would be attracted to play in them. Since the professional era began, good players will not patronize an event unless the event offers world ranking points and good prize money. This often places event organizers in a ‘catch 22’ situation.
Who guarantees the players wants? The answer is professional bodies – WTA for women and ATP for men. Franchises are given only to events which can meet the demands and standards stipulated by them. Using the process of world ranking points and guarantees in prize money, these two bodies rate and allocate the franchises to the best offers for a set period.
Scramble for Franchises
In a conversation with a former elite player it came to light that there are no slots available in the ‘ATP-World-Tour’ classification for another big event. So getting a franchise to hold a Tennis event is not as simple as one thinks. With two months as rest period for the professional Tennis players, officially only ten months are available for events. Right now, there is more than one event a week in the world Tennis calendar. Getting a slot to stage an event is one big juggling act amidst the professional bodies, the event organizers in the cities, sports administrators of the countries, the sponsors, national bodies.
Cities also want to have the best time of year to stage an event. Dubai for example has the event in the cooler month of February. Australia takes January by tradition. From March onwards to late July it is the European season. August through to September is the American season. This is followed by the year end championships in October for men and November for women. The only possibility of getting a slot in the “ATP-world-Tour’ right now seems to be to buy one from a franchise holder. I cannot imagine how this works or whether this is possible.
Players’ perspective
In terms of income, top players have come a long way from having to play for a few dollar cents a point on the streets of major cities. It is said that the ATP professional Tennis circuit came to being in a car park! This is so not only in Tennis but in many other sports. Today, Tennis players and other sportsmen are mega personalities with mega incomes. In an individual game like Tennis, the prospect of lasting a decade in the top five is a possibility only for a very few players every twenty years. For most, the top ten positions are only for a short period of their career.
It is believed that the top twenty of the world ranked players makes mega money and the top fifty makes more of less that of a well educated professionals in their career life. I presume for a player staying at the top in terms of management, training, support staff, travel, medical, publicity and maintaining an appealing profile, does not come cheap.
Big cities attract good players always and one does not really know how. Appearance money is not officially sanctioned by any of the professional bodies. There is no way to control this but only appeal to players for good conduct.
Big things that makes a city
As a general rule in grading a city for appeal, some aspects weigh more. They are antiquity, architecture, festivals, sporting events, location, space for leisure activity and scenic charm. Sports stadiums are an attraction today as much as the Coliseum of Rome. The new Beijing Olympic Stadium gets many thousands of paying visitors daily.
Once in Los Angeles my host housed me in the hotel he was managing in Beverly Hills. The Hotel had a very inconspicuous entrance like any other home on the street. It was a simple two houses connected comprising around 40 rooms, a reception area, a snack bar a little larger than the reception with high stools, a very good menu and a bubble bath nearby. When I was told that the price of a room for a day was close to a thousand dollars, I was amazed and even more so when I was informed that they have 95% year round occupancy. Puzzled, I asked, what is the magic here? The answer was simple, ‘This is the city of Los Angeles’. The location was the attraction and location will always be the attraction and not the buildings! Something we need to learn in Colombo!
This is the power of a popular city. So when cities clamour for ATP and WTA events, I always remind myself of the city of Los Angeles. Coming to think of it, which city will not like to be like Los Angeles? Big cities are attracted to major Tennis events. The big cities are not resting on their laurels either. New York’s US-Open Arthur Ash stadium will have a one hundred million dollar retractable roof for their 2016 event. Staying on top is often harder than reaching the top.
George Paldano, former international player; Accredited Coach of Germany, National coach, Davis Cup and Federation Cup Coach; ITF and USPTR; –gptennis.ceylon@gmail.com-