The new Davis Cup would bring together 18 national teams at a neutral site for a week in NovemberGETTY IMAGES
The ITF gathers in Orlando this week for its annual general meeting and will vote Thursday on whether to condense the Davis Cup from a "year-round competition to two weeks, double the total prize money" to at least $20M, and "shorten matches to best-of-three sets instead of best-of-five," according to Christopher Clarey of the N.Y. TIMES. The new Davis Cup, with the backing of a $3B "commitment over 25 years from the investment group Kosmos, would bring together 18 national teams at a neutral site for a week in November each year." ITF President David Haggerty said that the deal is a way to "stabilize the ITF economically and increase grass-roots funding for tennis worldwide" by giving $25M "annually to the national federations." He added that more than $15M also would be "invested in staging the new November event." The proposal on the agenda in Orlando is "genuinely radical -- far too radical for some." It "needs two-thirds of the votes by 147 ITF member nations to pass," a "high bar to clear." Haggerty: "We have the votes, but I don’t underestimate anything." The proposal comes amid a "turf war with the ATP Tour, which had been in negotiations with Kosmos and is planning a revival of the World Team Cup." The ATP event, if implemented in January '20, could be a "direct competitor and existential threat to the revamped Davis Cup" (N.Y. TIMES, 8/14).
