The WTA Tour operated at a financial loss the last two years but expects to break even this year, according to the circuit’s new CEO, Steve Simon.
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Steve Simon, the WTA Tour’s new CEO, sees a profitable outlook for 2017 and beyond.
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It’s the first confirmation that the largest professional sport for women had been losing money in recent years, a subject long rumored in tennis and the reason some had suggested that Simon’s predecessor, Stacey Allaster, abruptly resigned in October.
Allaster said at the time her desire to spend more time with her family was incompatible with the intense travel demands of the WTA chief executive role. However, she also had been under pressure to increase WTA revenue and had not found a new lead sponsor for the tour, which has remained open since 2012.
Simon denied that Allaster, who takes over as head of professional tennis at the U.S. Tennis Association later this month, resigned for any financial reasons.
But the WTA disclosure also comes at a time when the issue of the economics of women’s sports has been in the news. Last week, members of the U.S. women’s national soccer team filed a federal complaint against the U.S. Soccer Federation over wage disparities with male players. That followed a tennis tournament event director resigning last month after making inflammatory comments about WTA players.
The WNBA, meanwhile, begins its 20th season of play this year but is still looking to gain a firm commercial foothold in sports. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver last fall said, “I thought ratings would be higher, attendance would be higher by now. I thought we would have broken through. I don’t know how else to say it.”
In golf, the PGA Tour and LPGA Tour announced a formal collaborative effort last month aimed at the promotion of the sport. Among the areas of emphasis that were touted in partnership were schedule coordination, joint marketing programs, domestic television representation, digital media, and the exploration of possible joint events.
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The topic of pay for WTA players comes as other leagues discuss equity issues too.
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In tennis, there is a long history of the WTA playing catch-up with the more financially secure ATP World Tour. The WTA, which has struggled in recent years to find commercial partners, lost $1.2 million in 2014 and $500,000 last year, though the hit could have been worse: The circuit originally projected a $3 million shortfall for 2015, Simon said.
“The [WTA] board was smart enough several years ago to tuck away a lot of money in reserves, and we went through a transition the last couple of years, which were these rumors you heard,” Simon said.
It was Simon’s former colleague at the BNP Paribas Open, Raymond Moore, who made what were widely seen as sexist comments about the economic value of women and male tennis players. Moore, who worked with Simon for 27 years at the event, resigned days later.
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Simon, who took over the WTA in October, said Moore’s contention that women should thank Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal for equal prize money and had ridden their coattails hurt because the words reopened the long and at times painful struggle the tour has endured for acceptance since its founding in 1973.
“It opened up a lot of wounds,” he said, “that I didn’t think we would have to open up again.”
The WTA under Simon finds itself at somewhat of a crossroads commercially, with the ATP far outpacing the WTA in terms of revenue. After nearly reaching parity in 2008, ATP revenue jumped 75 percent through 2014, while the WTA’s increase was 19 percent, according to the groups’ most recent tax returns. And while the WTA has many sponsorship slots to fill, including the long-vacant lead one, the ATP has no more inventory to offer, said Chris Kermode, ATP executive chairman and president.
“We had [a] record year last year on sponsorship,” Kermode said. “Since 2009, we have grown 245 percent in [sponsor] revenues. It has been a big success story.”
The ATP lists 13 sponsors as partners on its website; the WTA, seven.
Simon said the WTA chose to operate at a loss knowing new media contracts in Europe and China kicked in starting this year. The tour wanted to invest in areas like marketing knowing the red ink would last only a few years, Simon said.
“Our outlook for 2017 and beyond is very good, very profitable,” he said.
