Monterrey Replaces Mexico City as WTA Championships Candidate

Written by: Staff on 31st January 2013

Monterrey Replaces Mexico City as WTA Championships Candidate

epa02818218 The shadow of Irina-Camelia Begu of Romania in action against Roberta Vinci of Italy is seen on the clay during the final match in the singles competition of the Poli-Farbe Budapest Grand Prix WTA tennis tournament, 10 July 2011, in Budapest, Hungary. EPA/TIBOR ILLYES HUNGARY OUT |

A political regime change in Mexico had immediate consequences on IMG’s and Mexico City’s bid to host the WTA Championships for 2014 and beyond. The WTA announced that Monterrey, Mexico has now replaced Mexico City as that country’s candidate city.

IMG was forced to back out of its bid after the December inauguration of new Mexican president Enrique Pena Nieto, who was a candidate for the political party the PRI, which returned to power after 12 years when voters decided they had had enough National Action Party (PAN) leaders. However the 2012 election results were disputed.

The PAN unseated the PRI in 2000. A PRI president had ruled Mexico for 76 years before then.

Before Pena Nieto’s election, IMG has secured backing from the PAN leaders who were in power, but the PRI cleaned house soon after it was elected.

Sources say that some PRI officials have a good relationship with Hernan Garza, who is the tournament director of the WTA tournament in Monterrey and who is now heading that city’s bid. The PRI is backing the bid both at a federal and at the state level. Monterrey is located in the state of Nuevo Leon.

The WTA requires that every candidate city have government backing.

“We have been working for more than a month on this,” Garza told ESPN Deportes. “They (WTA) said: We are looking for a promoter. And the city has a history of organizing tennis tournaments so that strengthened our position to be named finalists.”

Two other cities remain in the bidding process as candidates: Singapore and Tianjin, China, Kazan, Russia is no longer in the bidding.

The Arena Monterrey will be considered as a potential venue. It seats 17,600 fans and the WTA requires seating for at least 8,000 fans. It has hosted a couple of NBA games as well as numerous concerts. Two other sites are being considered.

The WTA claims that the economic impact of the Championships to a city is worth up to $50 million.

Monterrey faces a stiff challenge if it is to outbid the two cities in Asia. China will host a record five WTA events in 2014, and the tour just approved the sale of its sole Premier event in Tokyo to Wuhan, China, the hometown of player Li Na.

And while Monterrey may be able to come up with the eight-figure sum it might take to attract the Championships, the WTA would be taking a risk moving it there given that Mexico has been wracked by violence over the past 12 years with its drug war having claimed the lives of some 60,000 Mexicans. The country’s tourism rates has been shaken by its reputation for violence.

However, even though a recent study by the Mexican Institute for Competitiveness called Monterrey one of the most dangerous in Mexico (its murder rate grew by 300% between 2010 and 2011) it is also called it the most modern and prosperous city in Mexico.

The report said it has the nation’s highest per capita GDP, the second-highest rate of foreign investment and excellent infrastructure and services.

Monterrey is a center for textile, food-processing, beer and construction industries and is considered very business friendly.

WTA Chairman and CEO Stacey Allaster is currently in Monterrey visiting potential sites and will be visiting each of the remaining finalists in the upcoming weeks.

©DAILY TENNIS NEWS WIRE

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