The BNP Paribas Open "continually tries to raise the bar in the tennis world, and adding the Hawk-Eye replay system to all eight of its match courts puts the event technologically ahead of every other tournament this year," according to Leighton Ginn of the Palm Springs DESERT SUN. Tournament officials "would not disclose the price of the technology," other than PM Sports CEO Charlie Pasarell saying, "There's a lot of zeros behind it." ATP World Tour Farmers Classic Tournament Dir Bob Kramer said that the technology "ran his tournament about $60,000-$70,000 for one court." Based on that cost, the price tag to the BNP Paribas Open "would be $420,000 to $490,000 for the seven courts that do not already have the Hawk-Eye technology." Ginn notes the Hawk-Eye system is "part of a remodeling of the Indian Wells Tennis Garden, which has gone from providing 11 to 33 television monitors, and added seats." There also are "three command centers to handle the replays, as well as video production." Int'l Tennis Federation BOD member Franklin Johnson "thinks it's unlikely another tournament would institute Hawk-Eye on all courts, especially in an era where sponsorship dollars can be hard to come by." Johnson: "I suppose as others join Indian Wells, it will bring pressure on the slams to do it. I would think that would take a period of several years." Hawk-Eye Innovations Dir of Operations Luke Aggas said that "as of now, none of the bigger tournaments have looked into adding Hawk-Eye on all courts" (Palm Springs DESERT SUN, 3/9).
