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Miami Open to remain on Key Biscayne despite site difficulties

Editor’s note: This story is revised from the print edition.

Crandon Park, where the Miami Open is played, has one stadium and hospitality in a temporary structure.
Photo by: GETTY IMAGES
WME-IMG plans to keep the Miami Open in Key Biscayne, despite the lack of progress in the fight to improve the event’s tropical tennis venue.

After losing in court last year to an opponent of further development at the open’s home since 1987, the event’s lawyer called the WTA/ATP stop as good as gone. Word floated that it could migrate north to Orlando, or flee overseas. Even Florida resident Serena Williams wrote a magazine piece pleading with the event to stay.

However, WME-IMG, the entertainment conglomerate that owns the event along with many other properties like UFC and represents some of Hollywood’s biggest stars, is easing off the relocation talk.

“We have the full intention to be in Miami for decades to come,” said Mark Shapiro, WME-IMG co-president, who is responsible for the tournament. The event, which annually draws more than 300,000 fans during its 10 days to the key in sight of downtown, starts this week.

“We love Key Biscayne, we love the people of Miami Beach, and most importantly our players and the tours overall love the culture and the beach of Miami Beach,” Shapiro said. “Nobody is going to desert Miami, that’s for sure. We have an [eight]-year contract to stay in Key Biscayne, and we intend to honor staying in Miami.”

Questioned whether the tournament can make money if it can’t improve the facility, he replied, “Absolutely.”

Nevertheless, going to the Miami Open is a bit like “Groundhog Day:” Nothing seems to change over the years. Concessions and hospitality are housed in temporary venues, there is one stadium with no overhead protection from the piercing Florida sun, and many of the outer courts could be found at lower-level events on the tours.

The tournament sits in Crandon Park, which is governed by rules handed down over 70 years ago by the family that donated the land and intended it for public use.

Well into the early 2000s, the event thrived as a near equal to the four Grand Slams. But a race for capital ensued in tennis, and many events surpassed the Miami Open, most notably the BNP Paribas Open, which finished recently in Indian Wells, Calif.

“If you are not growing, you are dying,” Shapiro said.

WME-IMG won voter approval for $50 million in enhancements, a drop in the bucket compared with the hundreds of millions of dollars spent individually by other tennis events. Yet the Miami Open has been unable to allocate even that because the grandson of the man who donated the land to Miami successfully sued the tournament to block the expansion plan on environmental grounds. He also sits on a board that oversees the land.

“It is always a hassle with the landowner,” Shapiro said. “I am not going to go into details. It is always just a hassle.”

The landowner Shapiro refers to is Bruce Matheson, a Miami lifer in his early 70s who in the early 1990s tried to block the construction of the only stadium on site (that process was so contentious that the event paid for a Camp David negotiator to mediate their dispute at an office in Boston). IMG bought the event in 2000.

The event site is owned by Miami-Dade County, with WME-IMG using it for roughly one month of the year — the days of the event, and the weeks to set up and tear down.

Last year, for example, a Duran Duran concert was suddenly relocated from the event site to downtown. “Every time we try to do something, whether it be music or bringing in a beach volleyball tournament, or expand our culinary horizons we are either rebuffed or get an argument from the landowner there,” Shapiro said.

Shapiro is not the only one frustrated. The local political class is generally supportive of the event, which has a larger economic impact than the local sports teams.

“As far as money coming in from outside the county, the Miami Open will bring in more,” said Jose Sotolongo, head of sports tourism for the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau.

“Look at the Dolphins, Marlins, the Heat, those teams draw locals.”

Economic impact is defined as dollars spent that otherwise would not have been. Because sports teams largely draw residents who would have spent their money somewhere in the local economy anyway, an event that draws large numbers of out-of-town visitors has a disproportionate impact.

Shapiro said local politicians and business leaders are actively lobbying Matheson to get what could not be won in court. Lawyers for Matheson did not reply for comment.

Shapiro remains hopeful that Matheson will come around, saying he never heard the event opponent maintain he wanted the tourney to leave Miami.

But in an interview with the Miami Herald in December 2015, Matheson made his feelings clear. Told by the editorial board the tournament might leave, he replied, “I won’t shed a tear if they leave.”

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