 |
PIF via Getty Images |
Tennis |
Matthew Futterman |
Saudi Arabia’s new $1billion proposal and the battle to control tennis
After months of waiting for the leaders of the Grand Slams to come up with a plan to reshape tennis and produce billions of dollars in growth, the rest of those in charge of the sport may be on the verge of taking matters into their own hands.
Following months of behind-the-scenes negotiations, the leaders of the men’s and women’s professional tours are attempting to secure financial viability with at least $1billion of investment from Saudi Arabia.
The move comes amid mounting tension in the sport, which players and executives say is primed to undergo the sort of once-in-a-generation realignment filled with rich promises of transformation, but often results in doing little to solve the long-standing structural problems — a season that is too long, too confusing to follow, too taxing for players and doesn’t allow for more than the top 80 or so players to meet their expenses.
Andrea Gaudenzi, the chairman of the ATP, the men’s tour, shared details of the proposed investments from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), many of which have been discussed or even agreed to previously, at a contentious meeting among the sport’s leaders on Saturday at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California.
Taken together, the investments could immediately increase the total revenues and investment in tennis — which are between $2.5billion and $3billion — by roughly a third. According to people familiar with the proposal, who remain anonymous to protect relationships, the bulk of the money will go toward purchasing a license for a new top-level mixed event in Saudi Arabia. There is also money for additional sponsorships.
PIF has already committed as much as $100million to sponsorships of the men’s rankings and multiple tournaments, money that was included in the proposal that Gaudenzi presented last weekend. The proposal also accounted for Saudi Arabia’s pending deal to host the WTA Tour Finals, which is yet to be announced but is expected to be finalized in the coming weeks.
Inside Saudi Arabia’s growing influence in sport
- Why the country bought into Premier League soccer
- Mohamed Salah, Saudis and the politics behind deal
- Golf, F1 and cycling… why they are buying sport
- The 2034 World Cup and what it means
A portion of the money may also go toward funding a revived tour for senior players, increasing prize money for current players, and providing support for the smaller tournaments that provide opportunities for developing players to compete and for more established players to earn appearance fees.
The meeting and the proposed $1billion investment from Saudi Arabia were first reported in the Telegraph. Representatives of Saudi’s PIF did not return messages seeking comment.
The investment proposal arrived at a time when leaders of the sport were expecting an altogether different plan for revitalizing the sport and reshaping its structure.
Since the summer, the leaders of the men’s and women’s professional tennis tours and the owners of their biggest tournaments have been waiting for the Grand Slams to deliver a proposal to overhaul the sport and secure its financial future.
First, they were told it would come in November in Turin, Italy, at the ATP Finals. Then the delivery date slipped to January in Australia. Finally, it arrived on Saturday in Indian Wells, the home of the first mixed tour event of the year, which is colloquially referred to as the ‘fifth Slam’.
Many of the top officials in the sport gathered to hear what the Grand Slams had to offer. They anticipated a carefully designed plan for a streamlined schedule that would be easier for fans to follow and that would reduce the strain on top players, something those players have been demanding for years.
Most importantly, they expected that the leaders of the sport’s four richest and most important events — the Australian, U.S. and French Opens and Wimbledon — had come up with at least a framework for how they might combine their media and commercial rights with those of the top tournaments on the tour in a way that would provide everyone with an opportunity to build a more profitable and sustainable sport.
What quickly became clear as Craig Tiley and Lew Sherr, the leaders of the organizations that control the Australian and U.S. Opens, delivered their presentation on Saturday was that the Grand Slams had far more work to do. After months of talks, the Grand Slam leaders still had not come to a financial agreement among themselves and therefore could not propose anything with dollars or rights attached.
They proposed the same idea they had talked about informally for months — a premium tour that included the four Grand Slams and 10 other top events, with a combined ATP and WTA Finals at the end of the season. They shared a proposed schedule, with the weeks of play delineated, but it was largely similar to the current schedule and did not specify which tournaments would take place during which weeks.
“There was no meat on the bones,” said one leader who was present at the meeting.
When the other officials peppered them with questions about financial arrangements, Tiley and Sherr told them they first needed buy-in on the broadest of broad strokes and asked for the formation of a working group to figure out the money. That idea quickly got shot down. According to people involved in the discussions, the Grand Slams were told that whatever negotiations eventually come to pass would be handled by Gaudenzi and his counterpart at the WTA, Steve Simon.
Simon has been largely supportive of the Grand Slams’ initial efforts toward creating a premium tour. Gaudenzi has not. When Sherr met with him last month in Europe, Gaudenzi told him the sport already had a so-called premium tour — the tournaments that, like Indian Wells, are known as Masters tournaments for the men and 1000 events for the women, to signify the number of rankings points the winner receives.
Six of those events are mixed, though the tournaments at the National Bank Open in Canada are divided between Toronto and Montreal and switch each year.
The Grand Slam organizers, especially Tiley and his colleagues at Tennis Australia, are desperate to maintain control of the tennis calendar, which, for much of the year, is built around regional swings that climax with their events. However, Gaudenzi and Simon have held talks with leaders in Saudi Arabia about holding a new, top-level mixed event in the country in January.
That could jeopardize the viability of the tour events in Australia and New Zealand that lead up to the Australian Open. Tennis Australia controls those events, leading Tiley to jump into the fray last summer when word first spread that Gaudenzi was working with leaders in Saudi Arabia.
The two have been battling with each other indirectly ever since, but Gaudenzi has moved ahead for the moment. That is down to one simple reason — he has money to offer the rest of the sport; Tiley and Sherr do not.
(Top photo: PIF via Getty Images)
Subscribe to The Athletic for in-depth coverage of your favorite players, teams, leagues and clubs. Try a week on us.
Matthew Futterman is an award-winning veteran sports journalist and the author of two books, “Running to the Edge: A Band of Misfits and the Guru Who Unlocked the Secrets of Speed” and “Players: How Sports Became a Business.”Before coming to The Athletic in 2023, he worked for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Star-Ledger of New Jersey and The Philadelphia Inquirer. He is currently writing a book about tennis, "The Cruelest Game: Agony, Ecstasy and Near Death Experiences on the Pro Tennis Tour," to be published by Doubleday in 2026. Follow Matthew on Twitter @mattfutterman
Sort By:
Subscribe to join the conversation.
D
Daniele R.
· Yesterday
I hate this whole thing, but I am also amazed to learn that only the top 80 players cover their expenses, that's clearly not sustainable.
N
Nicholas F.
· Yesterday
"Never Forget" seems to be forgotten when you throw billions of dollars around.
R
Robert S.
· Yesterday
This is making a deal with Satan. Not even one mention of Saudi human rights record or their treatment of women. There’s a far simpler solution to expanding the number of players supported by the Tours: take more of the money distributed to the bureaucrats at the top of the sport in both official organizations and the likes of apparel/racquet companies and give it to the players. Voila! Problem solved without selling your soul!
No comments:
Post a Comment