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Discussion on a possible ATP and WTA merger has been underway for some time now, but the governing bodies are yet to come up with a viable plan for that to materialize.
The two bodies have worked independently for years and have separate tournaments, sponsors and broadcasting partners. The common events, meanwhile, in most cases, offer a much bigger prize money purse for the men's comeptition and that is a gap that the tennis world is looking to bridge.
Speaking on the issue in a recent interview with Championat.com, the vice-president of the Kazakh tennis federation, Yuri Polsky, said it was a harsh reality that the revenue generated by ATP and WTA was not the same.
“But we must understand that the Billie Jean King Cup and the WTA , having equal prize money, do not generate the same income,” Yuri Polsky said, “That is, unfortunately, this is a reality - people go to men’s tennis more.”
In such a case, Polsky said it was hard to market them together. He added that marketing the broadcasting rights for the men's and women's Tours together would be a good starting point as it would increase visibility for the latter.
“As a solution, ATP proposes a rights pooling option: broadcasting rights will be sold in the “ATP+WTA” complex. Broadcasters will buy the block: they cannot buy ATP separately. So they will also buy WTA.”
“In this way, the value of the women's tennis association can be raised - artificially pumping it up a little,” he continued. “But in general, attention is being drawn - at least women's tennis will be broadcast.”
“For the WTA it is a matter of survival, for the ATP it is a matter of reputation” - Kazakh Federation VP
Yuri Polsky also dubbed the potential merger between ATP and WTA as a matter of “survival” for the latter and reputation for the “former”.
He revealed that the ATP had a better grasp over its finances, and the increased interest in even smaller tournaments has led to a steady growth in its overall value.
“No, these are serious discussions,” Yuri Polsky said. “We, as members of the association, know this - we attend ATP meetings. For the WTA it is a matter of survival, for the ATP it is a matter of reputation.”
“They don't want the women's tour to fail because it won't look right,” he continued. “The ATP has good finances: it has reserves and the players have a pension fund. There is a lot of interest in tournaments, so their value is growing.”
The Kazakh added that it remains unclear as to what the terms of any possible merger will be at this point.
“ATP is considering this option, but the question is under what conditions the merger will take place,” Yuri Polsky said. “An unprofitable asset with a premium is never sold, but rather at a discount. So it is unclear what the share will be and how much the ATP is ready to additionally finance the WTA.”
