The WTA is on top of the world. That was the message Stacey Allaster, the CEO of the Women’s Tennis Association, wanted to be loud and clear last week at the tour Finals in Singapore, the first time the season-ending showpiece was held in the Asia-Pacific region.
In fact, it’s been the message the WTA have been trying to convey all year, since they announced a record-setting five-year deal with Singapore that is worth more than $70 million (Dh257m).
There had been a year-long campaign for the Road to Singapore that led to the WTA Finals, which for the first time brought past, current and future champions under one roof in a format designed to create a fan festival.
Not only were the top-eight players involved, but the doubles teams were raised to eight rather than four, the Finals became a 10-day event instead of a week, a Legends Classic, a Rising Stars event and Future Stars tournaments were added.
That’s not to mention a performance by Mariah Carey, an addition reminiscent of the concerts that have become a popular feature of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
With BNP Paribas as title sponsors and SC Global as presenting sponsors, the newly-branded WTA Finals (formerly dubbed the WTA Championships) were the organisation’s way of ushering in a new era where the focus is on the fans and the strategy is all about Asia.
But with 54 tournaments across 33 countries on the WTA calendar, why all the fuss about one seasonclosing event? “It is the largest source of net revenue for the WTA,” Allaster told Sport360° in Singapore.
“It comes with the commercial relationship that we have with the World Sport Group, Singapore Tourism Board and Sport Singapore.
“As an organisation we’re a membership that is owned by players and tournaments. And the tournaments are independent and the players are independent contractors.
“In the centre is the WTA – there aren’t that many things that the centre owns because the tournaments own everything and the players own all their rights. “
When we do asponsorship deal we end up flowing most of that money back to the players, and the tournaments if we sold their rights.
“The WTA Finals is owned by the centre, and that’s why it is the largest single source of net revenue. This is the largest financial deal in the history of the WTA, our partnership with Singapore.”
The deal will see five editions of the WTA Finals staged in Singapore, from 2014 to 2018. The championships has bounced around the globe since its first staging in 1972 in Boca Raton, Florida.
What started as the $100,000 (Dh367,000) Virginia Slims Championships back then has become a $6.5m (Dh23.8m) event (increased by $500,000 to stay in line with the men’s ATP Finals) with 62 broadcast licenses airing over 4,500 hours of tennis over one week.
When the WTA lost Sony Ericsson as a title sponsor for the tour – a deal which amounted to $88m (Dh323m) over six years and was the largest in the history of women’s sport – in 2010, it was a sign of some tough times ahead for the association. But Allaster insists it helped them diversify.
“At the end of 2010 we made a strategic decision that we were not going to sell the title sponsor,” said the 51-year-old Canadian.
“Sony Ericsson continued as our partner, in 2011 and 2012, as our lead global partner. And what that did – yes we had a different commercial relationship with Sony Ericsson – but we had five new partners in 18 months.
“Because there’s a difference in going to Xerox, SAP or Rolex saying ‘would you like to be a partner of the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour?’ or ‘the WTA?’. And so the strategy itself actually generated more sponsorship dollars than by going to the single source.
“In addition it does provide us with more sponsors to activate.
“So at the moment our strategy is to find a lead global partner. I can confirm that we have conversations going on. I believe in the strength of the product and we also want a premium brand to be aligned with. We’re going to get one.”
The new partnership with Singapore led to the opening of a new WTA office in the host city, which will focus on the tour’s expansion in Asia while their office in Beijing will focus solely on China.
China has seen the fastest growth for women’s tennis. In 2008, there were just two WTA events there, in 2015, there will be 11. A decade ago, the entire Asia-Pacific region had just seven tournaments, now there are 22.
A lot of that growth can be owed to China’s Li Na, Asia’s first singles grand slam champion, who has influenced the continent like no other athlete had ever done.
Her retirement last month came as a blow to the tour but Allaster assures the WTA’s plans were never pinned on one single player.
“The strategy was in place before Li Na won Roland Garros in 2011,” she says.
“Just look at the footprint, the WTA Finals being here, 11 events in China and we’re going to build upon that. And the great news is that she has immediately transitioned from WTA superstar, former world No2, to WTA legend. She is here in Singapore as an official ambassador of the Finals, she’s committed to next year as well.”
Some have criticised the WTA’s full-on attack on Asia, saying they’re putting all their eggs in one basket, which might not even be the right basket – after all, there was reportedly a seven per cent decrease in attendance at the China Open this year. But Allaster disagrees.
She says: “The growth strategy is focused on Asia-Pacific. If we want to have some real meaningful long-term growth – there’s $5 trillion (Dh18.4 trillion) in GDP here within seven hours of Singapore.
“The challenge that we have with this product is that I only have 10 top-10 players and you have to manage your product to make sure that they’re healthy. Because if they’re not healthy then we can’t deliver to our fans and sponsors.
“So then you have to follow a calendar with geographical flow. That by design doesn’t make it that easy to be going down to South Africa, going to South America, India… there’s no question all of those markets are on our radar, but how we get to them in the flow.
“We have two events now in Brazil, that was a first for us, with Rio and Florianopolis; Two events in Mexico. And I think we are focused on really building upon what we have now in place in Asia. We are mindful of what opportunity might be available in India, and ultimately I want to do more in Africa.”
After years of using “Strong is Beautiful” as their main marketing campaign, the WTA’s new message is “Power to Inspire”. Who knows? Maybe it will inspire some sponsors to help power them into their desired future.
