Clock ticking for New Haven event

Written by: Staff on 30th September 2010

Clock ticking for New Haven event |

The ink has almost run out for Pilot Pen Tennis at Yale as the tournament organisers desperately search for a new title sponsor.

The event is the last in the Olympus US Open Series and is the final warm-up act before the US Open begins but in the current economic climate, it needs new backers to keep going. As a result, the tournament director, Anne Worcester, has announced that she is extending the deadline for contract negotiations for one more month in the hope of keeping the tournament alive.

“We continue to pursue title sponsors and other partners to keep professional tennis in New Haven,” she said. “While we initially indicated that September 30 was our deadline for securing financial support to conduct a tournament in 2011 and beyond, that window has been extended into October. Our goal is to find partners who will help us continue the tradition of using a large-scale, international sporting event to generate significant economic impact in the region and to impact the community in a positive, healthy and active way.”

The tournament certainly attracts attention in New Haven. This year, nearly 80,000 people came to watch Caroline Wozniacki, the world No.2, claim the women’s crown and Sergei Stakhovsky lift the trophy for the men. In all, the event generated around $26million in revenue for the area and was plastered across ESPN 2 and CBS’s airwaves for 16 hours.

For Wozniacki, her success at the Pilot Pen ensured that she won the Olympus US Open Series and so took home a $250,000 bonus to add to her prize money as a US Open semi finalist, bringing her earning for the two weeks in New York to $650,000. Had she won the title in Flushing Meadows, she would have added a cool $1 million to the $1.7 million winner’s prize.

Held at the Connecticut Tennis Center on the historic Yale University campus, the tournament is traditionally the last stepping stone on the way to the US Open. Pilot Pen has long been associated with the sport and has maintained close ties to its host city of New Haven, organising free tennis lessons each spring for hundreds of public school children and working in conjunction with the New Haven Parks and Recreation Department to provide affordable year-round tennis lessons. Thousands of children have participated. Last year, Pilot Pen Tennis worked to secure funding from the USTA and the City of New Haven to help resurface tennis courts at a public park in the city.

But now time is running out and unless new sponsors can be found, the tradition of top-level tennis in Connecticut may be no more than a distant memory.

Topics: Active Way, Backers, Caroline Wozniacki, Contract Negotiations, Economic Climate, Economic Impact, Espn, Espn 2, New Haven, Olympus, Pilot Pen Tennis, Prize Money, Professional Tennis, Semi Finalist, Stepping Stone, Tennis Center, Title Sponsor, Title Sponsors, Tournament Director, Yale University Campus