The 157,236 tickets sold this past week for the du
Maurier Open women's tennis championship in Montreal "set a
record for a one-week women's tennis event," according to
Tony Maraschiello of the TORONTO SUN. The event was the
final one for title sponsor du Maurier, ending a 21-year
association. Rogers Communications and AT&T "will take
over" title sponsorship next year when the tournament
returns to Toronto (TORONTO SUN, 8/21). In Toronto, Mary
Ormsby noted that the previous record was 144,062 tickets
sold for the '98 du Maurier women's tourney (TORONTO STAR,
8/19). In Ottawa, Mike Dempsey noted that the prize money
disparity between the women's du Maurier event and the men's
Tennis Masters Series event in Toronto "seems even more
alarming when attendance figures are compared: 137,688 fans
for the Toronto tournament, roughly 14,000 fewer people than
attended the 1999 men's event in Montreal, and nearly 20,000
fewer than the total for this week's [women's] event." du
Maurier Tournament Dir Richard Legendre: "I think there's a
majority of people right now who think that women's tennis
is a little more appealing" (OTTAWA CITIZEN, 8/20).
RCA CHAMPIONSHIPS: Total attendance of 79,800 for the
nine days of the men's RCA Championships at the Indianapolis
Tennis Center "was the third lowest since it became a
hardcourt event" in '88. Meanwhile, NBC announced it will
telecast the event's semifinal and final through 2003
(INDIANAPOLIS STAR, 8/21). In Indianapolis, Mark Ambrogi
wrote that the "absence" of Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras
"contributed to weak attendance." However, ATP Tour Exec VP
of the Americas J. Wayne Richmond said that there "might be
a lot of talk about the women's game being stronger, but
it's not reflected on the business side." Richmond: "A lot
of it is perception." Richmond added, "We are doing 11
hours of worldwide TV a day in our Tennis Masters Series
events. And the only place the women have anything close to
that going on is when they're playing with is in Indian
Wells [CA] and Miami" (INDIANAPOLIS STAR, 8/20).
