Connecticut’s Discount Purchase Of New Haven Is Wise Move

Written by: Bob Larson Tennis on 14th October 2013

Connecticut’s Discount Purchase Of New Haven Is Wise Move

epa03545641 Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland (L) shakes hands with Ana Ivanovic of Serbia after their 4th round match at the Australian Open Grand Slam tennis tournament in Melbourne, Australia, 20 January 2013. Radwanska won in two sets. EPA/Mast Irham |

While the state of Connecticut will likely become the first state to buy a WTA tournament if it’s $618,000 bid to purchase the rights to the New Haven Open is approved by the state’s Capital Region Development Authority, tournament officials believe that it will turn out to be a great investment.

The Capital Region Development Authority will vote on the purchase shortly, which has already been approved by the WTA Board of Directors. The authority’s board has been involved in the negotiations so a “yes’ vote appears to be probable.

The USTA decided to sell it at what is believed to be a heavy discount to the state after the ATP Board of Directors turned down a request by the tournament in Winston-Salem to host a combined event and purchase the New Haven sanction.

WTA Premier Level events such as New Haven have been shopped around abroad for up to $5 million, but the USTA wanted to make sure that the tournament stayed in the United States so was willing to discount the price to keep interested parties in the game.

When tournament director Anne Worcester found out the USTA had okayed the potential sale to Winston-Salem and New Haven had 14 days to match the offer, she went into action and contacted the Connecticut politicians she has come to known over the years and who had already invested in the tournament in other ways.

After the ATP Board turned down the Winston-Salem del, New Haven was given more time.

Government Dannel Malloy announced the purchase himself last Friday and was accompanied by Ben Barnes, Malloy’s budget director, who was heavily involved in the process.

“Economic development for our urban environments, and the state as a whole, is a fundamental component of the state’s agenda and we view the New Haven Open as another chapter in bolstering this effort,” Malloy said. ”

Barnes added: “In this case, we’re making a relatively modest investment, given the size of the economic development return that this brings to the community,” he said.

The amount of direct economic impact it has to the state has been hotly debated, but an economic impact study conducted in 2008 found that the tournament generated around $26 million in regional economic impact, including almost 300 jobs and $1.1 million in state tax revenue.

Some believe that the real impact could be less than half of that, but even it is, the same amount that the government will pay for the event plus what it is putting into facility upkeep at the Connecticut Tennis Center (around $300,00 last year) indicates that the state will benefit from its annual presence.

High tax revenue and job creation alone should be enough to convince politicians that it’s a good deal.

Connecticut Professional Tennis, a for-profit organization which had leased the tournament’s sanction from the USTA, will be replaced by a non-profit organization. The Tennis Center was built with state funds and could possibly hold other events such as concerts in the future.

Longtime tournament financial backers Butch Buchholz and Mike Davies, who have been a fixture in the sport for decades, will now be able to step away from the event and no longer assume the risk, as will the USTA.

While the tournament does not have big name sponsors, it did announce that it has received renewals from its biggest five sponsors, Aetna, American Express, First Niagara, Yale-New Haven Hospital and Yale University. Four of the deals are for three years.

It appears that Worcester’s team will be kept in place even though the state obviously has the option of replacing it.

Some tennis industry folks believe that without Worcester at the helm, the tournament may have left after 2010 when it lost its title sponsor Pilot Pen, but she manage to round up the five supporting sponsors, and this year, the former WTA CEO managed to convince the government for full backing when things looked dire.

However, Worcester and Barnes have acknowledged the event has lost money in recent years and that attendance has steadily dropped, although paid attendance was up in 2013.

Some 45,796 fans attended the August tournament, down from 53,004 in 2012, but many of those 2012 tickets were said to be comped.

Barnes acknowledged that public ownership of a tournament is unusual in the United States.

“We are working on creating a management structure under which we are given a commensurate level of control of expenses of the tournament,” he said. “We are also working with our other institutional sponsors to come up with an appropriate formula for sharing some of the operating risk, so the state is not alone in carrying that.”

The Capital Region Development Authority ‘s vote on the purchase will occur on Oct. 17.

Topics: 10sballs, Atp, new haven open, Sports, Tennis, Tennis News, Usta, Wta