With ISL Reeling, ATP Forced To Rethink Marketing Structure

ISL Worldwide has "begun unravelling" its $1.2B marketing deal with the ATP, "though final details are still being negotiated," according to sources of Daniel Kaplan of the SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL. The "financially troubled" ISL has "given back to the ATP and its tournaments TV production rights for men's tennis' top 10 events," called the Masters Series. ISL "also has shifted its head of tennis," Chris Renner, to Brazil, "where he is overseeing the company's money-losing ownership of the commercial rights" of two soccer teams. Kaplan writes that the "tennis moves are the clearest sign yet that ISL wants to scuttle its record-breaking ATP pact" (SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, 2/19 issue).