The first Davis Cup tie to be held in Vancouver in 20 years will be played this weekend at the Univ. of British Columbia's Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre, with many questioning why the France-Canada matchup "isn't being played in a major-league venue that would maximize tennis's exposure to a blossoming fan base," according to Cam Cole of the VANCOUVER SUN. The venue will seat "just under 6,000" for the tie, and Tennis BC CEO Ryan Clark said of selecting the on-campus venue, "Could we sell more? Absolutely. But if you go through it logically, where else could it be? Rogers Arena would have been awesome, and Rogers is a huge supporter of tennis in Canada and would have loved it to be there -- but we need the venue for 12 days, including setup, practice and teardown, and the Canucks play Monday night." Canadian Davis Cup player Daniel Nestor said, “There was a little bit of a dilemma leading up to this. I think Rogers Arena is a little bit too big, and 5,000 seems like it's a little bit small. Something in the 10,000 range would have been perfect, but I don't know if you had that choice. I think in Davis Cup, the intimate atmosphere is going to be to our advantage. It's going to feel like the crowd is really close and vocal and in (France's) face - at least that's what we hope. And 5,000 is a pretty good-sized crowd." Fellow Canadian Davis Cup player Milos Raonic added, “The right venue was picked for the event. Obviously, ticket sales you probably could have filled up a bit more, but ... I played an exhibition this year at the ACC (Air Canada Centre) -- it was done great, but in a big, big stadium, you don't have that echo, that full-on force.” He added, “Especially at a Davis Cup tie, you want to have intimacy that's not only for the (fans) but for the players" (VANCOUVER SUN, 2/8).
