The ATP and the WTA study to merge their tennis circuits

2023-09-06 13:11:32

Tennis plays doubles. Andrea Gaudenzi, President of the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), and Steve Simon, Executive Director of the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA), will meet in London to address a possible merger between the two main professional tennis circuits in the worldaccording to The Telegraph.

The objective of the merger is to unify the government of men’s and women’s tennis and strengthen a professional structure that seeks to shield itself from the interest of Middle Eastern countries. In fact, those responsible for world tennis seek to avoid the takeover bid for paddle tennis or golf.

The idea of ​​merging both circuits is not new, since, in 2021, the ATP and the WTA created a single marketing department for both circuits with the aim of accelerating and promoting the sale of commercial assets and creating synergies.

Tennis is one of the few sports in which the same amount is distributed in its men’s and women’s tournaments. prize moneyAlthough that only happens in big tournaments. In those of less caliber, male tennis players can earn 75% more in prizes than their colleagues.

The ATP and the WTA already created a joint marketing department in 2021

In fact, the ATP announced in November last year the biggest year-on-year increase in its history, so the total compensation for the ATP Tour and ATP Challenger Tour events will be $217.9 million in 2023, 20.1% more than in 2022.

The record increase also includes a significant improvement on the ATP Challenger Tour, which will see on-site cash prizes grow by 75%going from 12.1 million dollars to 21.1 million dollars.

For its part, in March, the British fund manager CVC Capital Partners bought 20% of the WTA women’s tennis circuit for 150 million dollars. The fund announced that the goal is to “further raise the profile of women’s tennis and accelerate business growth for the benefit of fans, players, tournaments and other stakeholders in the game.”

Founded in 1973, the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) or Women’s Tennis Association is the entity that organizes the professional women’s tennis circuit worldwide. For its part, the ATP was created in 1972 with the aim of representing male tennis players. Since 1990, it has organized the professional men’s tennis circuit worldwide, replacing the Grand Prix and the World Championship Tennis.