WME-IMG executive Gavin Forbes narrowly won re-election to the ATP World Tour board of directors last week, scoring a third three-year term and beating out former player Todd Martin by what sources said was a single vote.
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Some parties in tennis have long resented IMG’s powerful role in the sport. The company represents players, owns tournaments, sells media and sponsorships, and has representation on both the ATP and WTA Tour boards. (Carlos Fleming, vice president of talent management at IMG, sits on the WTA board.)
There had been talk in recent months in tennis circles that Forbes’ position was in trouble, and indeed Martin almost nudged him out. Martin earlier this year was named CEO of the Tennis Hall of Fame, which owns a low-level ATP event.
Neither Martin nor Forbes, senior vice president of tennis at IMG, responded for comment.
Forbes was the only member of the seven-person board who was up for election. An ATP spokesman confirmed his re-election, though not the vote count.
The ATP board consists of three player representatives and three tournament representatives, along with the tour’s executive chairman. Each of the tournament board members represents a different region of the globe. In Forbes’ case, it’s North, Central and South America. Each event has a vote for its board member, and there are 17 events in the Western Hemisphere region — meaning the vote between Forbes and Martin would have been nine to eight. (Each presumably received a vote from his respective group’s own event: Martin with the Hall of Fame-owned tournament, and Forbes with the IMG-owned Miami Open.)
The big issue facing the ATP board currently is prize money at the top-level tournaments, known as the 1000s. Without a deal, the events are free to set their own purses next year.
ATP Player Council President Eric Butorac wrote in an email, “I believe we are getting closer and I expect us to reach a deal by the end of the year.” The player council elects the three ATP player representatives and advises them.
ATP Executive Chairman Chris Kermode even more optimistically wrote in an email that a resolution could be reached by the end of this month.
