The ATP/WTA Miami Open "may be closing the door on staying in Key Biscayne’s Crandon Park," as the tennis tournament's lawyer said that the "only variable is how long it will take the Open to leave after losing its challenge to growth restrictions at the county-owned" facility, according to a front-page piece by Douglas Hanks of the MIAMI HERALD. Attorney Eugene Stearns said that an exit to another city "is a virtual certainty on the heels of last week’s defeat" before the Third District Court of Appeals. IMG, which owns the event, "has an eight-year commitment in its contract with Miami-Dade, but Stearns maintains that agreement is no longer valid because the county has failed to provide an updated home for the yearly event." Tourney officials also have "declined to tamp down speculation that a new tennis facility in Orlando would be a good alternative." Last month, Miami Open Exec VP & Tournament Dir Adam Barrett noted cities as far away as Dubai and Beijing "would welcome the kind of pro tennis event that’s been held in Key Biscayne" since the '80s. The tournament "began building political pressure for the expansion" in '12, when it "championed a countywide ballot question" endorsing the plan to redo the main 14,000-seat tennis stadium." The expansion would also "create two other permanent stadiums where smaller courts now stand." The ballot item "passed" with 73% of the vote. Miami Open "pledged to pay for the construction, but the agreement with Miami-Dade also includes a 50-year extension on the tournament’s Crandon lease, as well as a new year-round management deal that has the tourney acting as the private operator of the public tennis courts" (MIAMI HERALD, 12/30).
