Corporate hospitality down in tennis, says ATP chief 09/09/2009 |
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Corporate hospitality has declined significantly in tennis during the global economic crisis but sponsorship money has been holding its own, the head of the men's ATP tour said on Tuesday.
"There are a lot of companies and industries and people that are having difficulty. The tour is not immune to that," ATP executive chairman and president Adam Helfant told reporters at the U.S. Open in Flushing Meadows.
"Corporate hospitality is generally off at our tournaments because corporations have less money to spend or don't want to be seen spending it."
Helfant said the sponsorship environment, "while difficult, has held up pretty well."
"We've only had one tournament on our tour this year lose a title sponsor and we've had 14 ATP World Tour events that have either signed a new or renewed sponsorship deals in 2009 alone, which is truly remarkable," he said.
He acknowledged though that attracting new sponsors has been challenging.
Helfant, who has been in the job for eight months, said the tour has not replaced Mercedes as its tour-wide sponsor but he hopes to have a new one in place for 2010.
"At the beginning of the year, my first three months, we had a lot of difficulty getting meetings," he said. "Now, not only are we having meetings, we're engaged in some pretty serious conversations."
ATTENDANCE FLAT
Helfant said 11 events have set new attendance records in 2009 so far, including Indian Wells (California), the Toronto Cup, and Washington, D.C.
"Attendance, if your look tour-wide to date, we're flat to slightly up," he said. "There are pockets where we're doing better or doing worse but in general our attendance is up.
"But what you have to remember is that with corporate hospitality being down, our fans are still showing up. Attendance figures are very good, all things considered."
Helfant said the ATP "has a pretty good global footprint" but would like to expand its reach into non-traditional regions.
"We went to Jo'burg (Johannesburg) for the first time this year and we have our Asia swing as well in the fall," he said. "We're looking at those markets.
"We have a tournament in India at the beginning of the year and met with folks there. They'd like to do more. We have a tournament in Brazil.
"So we are looking at those markets, or pre-emerging markets to help grow the appeal of our game."
(Source: Reuters)
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