WTA Chair & CEO Stacey Allaster "has set her sights on further growth of the tour via a landmark television deal and by enhancing the fan experience," according to Mark Lamport-Stokes of REUTERS. Allaster said of the WTA's TV deal with London-based Perform, which begins in '17, "It’s a 10-year deal worth a minimum of $525-million and it will be the game-changer moment for us because it is all about giving women’s tennis more exposure. We only have one-third of our matches (televised) today but in 2017 we will do all 2,000 of them across multiple platforms in multiple forms, short-form as well for the younger consumer who might only want two or three-minute highlights of matches." Lamport-Stokes noted Allaster "regards the tour's global reach as both a bonus and a challenge." She said, "A lot of sports leagues would love to have what we have, to be truly global. To have 10 official ranking events in China, most leagues can’t do that." Meanwhile, Allaster "not only wants to see the spectator experience maximized through product innovations but also through direct feedback." Allaster: "To build our strategic plan for growth, we asked fans what they want from the WTA. We did not talk to tennis fans. We have them. We asked sports fans what we could do to improve the product so that they would watch more, follow more.” Lamport-Stokes noted the global survey of 5,000 fans from countries such as China, Brazil, Australia and Spain "revealed that a desire to have national tennis heroes and emerging stars topped the list" (REUTERS, 3/26).
