250-level events like the Winston-Salem Open could face marketing and exposure challenges under the proposal. getty images
American tennis stakeholders agree with portions of the ATP Tour’s new proposed Strategic Plan, especially its goal of aggregating the media and data rights of all 64 tournaments, as well as increasing collaboration among the sport’s governing bodies.
But there is serious concern about the proposal’s impact on the lowest level of ATP tournaments, the 250s, as well as how quickly the tour wants to approve the plan. Stacey Allaster, the USTA’s chief executive of professional tennis, confirmed to Sports Business Journal that ATP Chairman Andrea Gaudenzi wants a vote on the plan at the tour board’s next meeting during the ATP Finals in London, which runs Nov. 15-22. That’s a major sticking point for the USTA, which owns 94% of the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati and oversees the U.S. Open Series of seven North American events leading up to the U.S. Open, including three 250s (Atlanta, Newport and Winston-Salem).
“The process and the timeline, we think is too rushed,” Allaster said. “We want to have a constructive dialogue on the details of the plan, but we are all just laser focused on stabilizing the business and seeing how we’re going to stage these events in 2021.”
The ATP’s new plan proposes a 2022 calendar emphasizing premium events by adding extra days to some of the tour’s top stops, the Masters 1000 tournaments. To make room in the calendar, six of the tour’s 38 tournaments on the 250-level would move into the second week of Masters 1000 events, including at Cincinnati, Indian Wells and Miami. The change would likely affect the smaller events’ ability to attract top players, media attention, fans and sponsors.
“It really reduces the value of a 250,” said Eddie Gonzalez, tournament director of the Truist Atlanta Open.
IMG, which owns the 1000-level Miami Open, declined to comment, but Allaster said, “We do not support 250s being in the second week of the Western & Southern Open.”
Gonzalez and Allaster suggested that ATP Challenger and WTA 125K events, both a level below the full tours, would be more appropriate fits in those second weeks. And Gonzalez confirmed that there already has been discussion of gradually reducing the number of 250-level events, which could ease calendar crowding.
To offset the affected 250s’ potential financial losses, the ATP plan proposes a subsidy. Gonzalez said it’s so far unclear how much would be offered, making it impossible for tournament directors to run financial calculations and determine whether to support or oppose the plan.
Questions also surround the ATP’s proposed new long-term prize money formula. That includes 50-50 profit sharing with players once tournaments hit a certain pre-tax net income threshold that many 250s rarely, if ever, reach, according to Winston-Salem Open tournament director Jeff Ryan. The plan also promises 250 and 500-level tournaments equity stakes in both ATP Media and a new centralized data operation, but Ryan said the tour hasn’t clarified what tournaments can expect in payouts.
Allaster said she has been promised more details by the ATP, but her recommendation is to still push the vote back and continue fine-tuning the plan.
“At the moment, we’re so caught in the mindset of 2021 and the impact of COVID,” she said, “that it’s hard to grasp all of the elements with clarity that Andrea would like us to vote on right now.”
