Service over: No to Chennai despite assurance

Even though the government increased funding, the question of sponsors had dominated the conduct of the tournament.
Chennai Open 2017 champion Roberto Bautista-Agut (Ashwin Prasath | EPS)
Chennai Open 2017 champion Roberto Bautista-Agut (Ashwin Prasath | EPS)

CHENNAI: “An era has passed,” the Tamil Nadu Tennis Association (TNTA) accurately summed up in its 313-word statement. And with that, their 21-year association with India’s only ATP World Tour event came to an end. Pune will replace Chennai in the ATP calendar from 2018.

While the denouement was swift, it had been coming for a long time. Ever since Gold Flake withdrew as title sponsors after the 2001 edition, thanks to a government ban on advertisement of tobacco products in sports, the ‘will it, won’t it’ nature cropped up on an almost annual basis. Tatas stepped in in 2002 before the Tamil Nadu government led by J Jayalalithaa took over the mantle as one of the main sponsors from the 2005 edition. Even though the government increased funding, the question of sponsors had dominated the conduct of the tournament. Serious money goes into hosting a World Tour tournament and often it would take an eleventh hour arrangement to get it sorted. Like it happened in 2016, when TNTA signed a new three-year deal with IMG-R.

That deal ran into problems after Aircel’s merger with RCom. So, the TNTA informed the IMG-R of the need for a new title sponsor — the ones who bring in the bulk of the money. “TNTA had told IMG-R that they should find a title sponsor for Chennai Open in 2018 & TNTA would raise the balance funds with the help of the TN govt and other local sponsors,” the mail from the association read. They also promised to honour their existing arrangement till 2019.

IMG-R did not wish to hang around and had begun scouting for new locations in the last 3-4 months. It struck gold when Maharashtra came forward. It is learnt the Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis was keen on taking it to his state.

There were other factors — not just money and failure to find sponsors — that put the TNTA on the back foot. Sources who followed the matter closely told Express that Jayalalithaa’s death turned out to be one of them. She personally did a lot and once she passed away, TNTA lost the pulling power.  

There was also another theory. Some felt it was increasingly becoming ‘too south-centric’ in its outlook and finding sponsors was getting difficult. Some were of the opinion that it had started losing its novelty factor too. Earlier, there used to be numerous programmes connected to the tournament. These days even a ribbon-cutting ceremony was getting hard to come-by. Lack of crowds even on weekends and a lack of interest in inviting tennis players for big-ticket functions across the city were other factors. Even organising promotional events in city more or less stopped over the last few years. In short the brand had taken a hit.

Five-year contract

The Maharashtra State Lawn Tennis Association (MSLTA), which will host the Maharashtra Open in Pune, has signed a five-year contract with IMG-R, a person who worked on the deal told this newspaper. “We have replaced Chennai as a venue in the sense that we will be holding the event in the first week of January. The length of the contract is going to be five years (TNTA’s current deal was going to expire in two years).”

That’s not all, the total prize money is also going to jump. “The total purse will be close to $550,000,” the source confirmed. That’s a bump of more than $100,000 (Chennai Open’s purse was $447,480). The source also revealed that initial discussions to take the event to Pune started around three months ago.

swaroop@newindianexpress.com

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