Davis Cup Tie Will Cost Argentina

Written by: Staff on 1st February 2013

Davis Cup Tie Will Cost Argentina

epa03543748 Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina hits a backhand during his 3rd round match against Jeremy Chardy of France at the Australian Open Grand Slam tennis tournament in Melbourne, Australia, 19 January 2013. EPA/Dennis Sabangan |

Most Argentine players have been super committed to Davis Cup and that country has had more than its fair share of sellouts, but the Argentina tennis federation says that it will lose money during this weekend’s tie against Germany at Parque Roca.

The federation told La Nacion that it is running a $375,000 dollar deficit, which it attributes to the absence of top player Juan Martin del Potro, a national holiday where many people will leave the area to celebrate, numerous tennis exhibitions that took place in December, as well as high temperatures.

“Yes, we will run a deficit,” said Hector Romani, executive vice president of the Argentina Tennis Association. It costs us about [1 million dollars] operate a series like this. People are on vacation . My friends who are on holiday and I ask, “Hey, will you come?” and they won’t. We are going to have daily ticket sales on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, depending on how the series goes. In other ties, ticket offices were closed on match days. In addition, the absence of Del Potro greatly affected it, it’s logical, as he’s top 10. Juan Martin has not played other first ties, but those were in March, not in the first weekend of February. The date is bad. The holiday … I think affects everything a little.”

Ignacio Olivero, COO of Havas Sports, which is the marketing arm of the tennis association, said it’s impossible to make money off the tie. At this point they are expecting 5000 people a day in a stadium that holds 14,000 people. The association is planning on giving away some tickets to junior players but does want to give away all of them.

“The product is important and we are not going to give them away just to give them away,” Romani said. “We can’t move it to another site in Buenos Aires because we have sponsor obligations that are scheduled and require distinct accommodations. Therefore financially we will be in the red.”

©Daily Tennis News Wire

Topics: Argentina Davis Cup, Davis Cup, Juan Martin Del Potro, La Nacion, Sports, Tennis News