Six tournaments on the men’s tennis tour, about 10 percent of the total, have yet to confirm major sponsorship deals for next year, the ATP Tour said.
The ATP has reviewed the sponsorships of all its events and got the results last month, Kris Dent, a London-based spokesman for the ATP, said in an interview today. Two tournaments are “extremely close” to announcing new agreements, he said.
Sports leagues and tournaments, including the National Football League, Major League Baseball, Formula One and Nascar auto racing, soccer, and golf, have been hurt by the economic crisis. In October, tennis’s Dutch Open was sold to the family of Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic after it failed to attract a sponsor. The Paris Masters event also said the same month that it lost one of its sponsors.
The men’s tour encompasses 63 tournaments played in 31 countries. The ATP is still looking to replace its main title sponsor Mercedes-Benz, whose 12-year support of the tour expires at the end of the month, Dent said. Mercedes-Benz, a unit of Daimler SA, the world’s second-biggest luxury carmaker, will continue to sponsor tournaments in Madrid, Shanghai and Stuttgart, Germany, next year.
“We continue to have very encouraging discussions with a number of partners from different sectors,” Dent said when asked how close the tour was to finding a new title sponsor. “We are in a fortunate position that as a business we can afford to take the time required to get the right kind of deal for the ATP.
“While clearly the current financial climate is an added challenge, we are very confident of finding the right kind of partner for the ATP at the right price for the ATP,” he said.
Having events spread out all over the world “means regional economic difficulties do not affect us in the way they might national associations or leagues,” Dent said.
As a result, the ATP Tour “remains cautiously optimistic about the future,” he said. “Having said that, we will continue to keep a careful eye” on the global financial situation.
Prize money for next season, set earlier this year at a record $80 million, won’t be affected, the ATP said.
(Source: Bloomberg)
