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WTA event in Ireland???

5K views 76 replies 32 participants last post by  V-MAC 
#1 ·
Ireland never had a WTA event, would love to have one here. But the big question is when? Countries like Uzbekistan can afford it???
 
#6 ·
Be interesting to add another week of warm up for Wimbledon. Ireland has some grass courts.
 
#8 ·
I believe the Irish Open was a WTA event in the early 1970s. At the start of the tour. The Irish Open is the world's second oldest tennis tournament and is now solely a men's event on the ITF circut :help:

Last 10k in Ireland was back in 2005. I think it was a 25k in the early 00s.

During the boom I feel tennis Ireland didn't take advantage of the extra money rolling around I mean Ireland hosted other shit over those years but never a ATP/WTA event.

I'd actually prefer a clay event during the clay season so that Ireland would actually build some clay courts :lol: So many ITFs are on clay that Ireland's lack of clay courts can hinder the players when playing the ITF circut.

I mean we'll always have Mabel Cahill, Joshua Pim, James Cecil Parke and Willoughby Hamilton. :lol:
 
#13 ·
Did any Irish people here attend the Collins Cup exhibition back in 2002. Remember seeing Venus, Serena, Lindsay, Monica, Hantuchova, Bovina (I think), Schett and Majoli.

For some reason Kournikova only played singles at that event :confused: Bovina replaced Dokic.

It was a good event but really the stands were maybe 55%-65% full. I dunno how many people in Ireland would attend say an ATP 250 or WTA International event. I feel attendances would be more like Baku than Portoroz. :sad:
 
#17 ·
Yes, they should add another grass court tournament before Wimbledon. It seems only fair for people who are better at grass since there are so many other tournaments played on clay and hard court.
 
#18 ·
The Collins Cup was organised by some entrepreneurial loon, who didn't have a blues clues of how to organise a tennis event. It was dreadfully marketed, and had no official sponsors whatsoever.

The players who took part definitely got paid. Ludicrous to think that they weren't and that they would have been so silent about it. Word was they were all paid a pretty penny, while the big shots who invested time and money into the event that got short changed at the end of it all.

Anyway, there's definitely not enough interest in tennis in Ireland to warrant any sort of tour level WTA event. Not to mention that Ireland is more broke than a Spanish street hooker.

I will say though that there could easily be a big exo that would sell out if it had V&S + Sharapova committed. I attended the final day of the Collins Cup and the sisters packed the stadium and received a huge reception when they came out. Everybody cheered against them throughout their matches, but it was obvious that everybody had come to see them.
 
#19 ·
I've often wondered who owns tour events and if any money is made from these tournamnents.
I know that the grand slams make a profit obviously but does anyone remember the insinuation that the aus open was going to be moved to asia? Who would decide that? The itf?
I think Indian wells is owned by a private individual, but what about the other tournaments? are they just run by the national federations?
I think there is a seniors event in belfast but I notice there is no futures level events in the north. Is that because the lta is ignoring them or are the six counties part of tennis ireland?
 
#25 ·
Not in everybody's eyes ;-). But on a serious note id love if we had a tournament I think there would be plenty of people who would go.
 
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#26 ·
On checking the websites I think that tennis in ulster is part of tennis ireland but with a co.uk address?! hence that would be why they have no tournaments up there either.

Thanks tennis srbija, does Djokovic own that tournament in belgrade? If so is he making a profit on it? What about appearance fees? Do they still exist?
 
#29 ·
Yup, his family does. Well, they get around 1.000.000 euros every year from the state, city of Belgrade, public companies...+ the sponsors, so yeah, they are making profit, even though they are saying that they aren't.
Yup as well. Appearance fees do exist...everywhere. So does the selling of WC spots. Not so much on the ATP/WTA level, but there are cases.
 
#32 ·
Polly, I think they'd be bankrupt by the time it would come to host the tournament! Look at Sean Quinn, the richest man in Ireland and now is broke.

So these appearance fees are legal then? If so seems very unfair on the lower ranked players. Didnt Andrea Paredes buy her WC into tournaments! She certainly didn't get one based on her play.
 
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