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Sorry But The Abysmal Crowds In Paris Justify Stacy Moving SEWTA To China

14K views 166 replies 78 participants last post by  BillFromRichmond 
#1 ·
OK you guys are always whining that the SEWTA is gradually moving all of its events to China, South America and the Middle East, and in the process "killing off" European events with decades of history and an amazing atmosphere :tape:

but I just watched highlights of SEWTA Paris and the atmosphere was like a dentist office ... the stands were only 10% full, including to watch Disco Petra and hometown favorites Marion & Alize :help:

I would say that for sure the crowds are China Open, Doha, Dubai are better and they will be better for sure in Wuhan ... add in the fact that sponsors in those countries have the $$$ to pay the SEWTA, it is natural for Stacy to pull the ax down on all European events :awww:
 
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#40 ·
NA MUG :spit: did you watch any of the frenchies play the stands where quite full and the bells and singing the french kids did and the cheering, the only match that the commentators said was dead was Petras but that was because it begun so late :rolls: the weekend will be full as well. Sometimes you really are a mess!
 
#48 ·
You`re so full of shit..I can't.

Please get your ass away from the computer and visit a tournament for once so that you may get a remote idea of what you`re talking about.

Dentist office? The atmosphere during the Bartoli match was amazing even though it was an early rounds match, people were going nuts. Even the seniors who sat right besides me were shouting like crazy.

Cornet had less crowd support because she doesn't seem to be all that well liked, the crowd was even booing her arguing with the umpire. Mladenovic on the other hand had the arena behind her and it was great.

In general the tournament seems to be pretty healthy, even the matches on Court 1 had decent crowds both days. And unlike in Asia or the Middle East where most of the crowd seems to be some of the nouveau riche kind who just go to be seen there, the fans in Europe are regular people who really do care about tennis and that reflects in the atmosphere - Something that is nonexistent in China or Doha.

Money may buy you tournaments but it can never buy you dedicated fans or a passion for tennis among regular people.
 
#53 ·
Not a new information that Paris attendance is very poor. It actually looks like an Metro station with a field always the same, Lucie, Petra, Marion and Carla... And can we just stop saying that China got the worst attendance, I mean if you place those spectators in Paris, Madrid or Rome to those mega court in China, it would be he same, sparse and looks less... It's not like China is the only country with tournaments with extremely low attendance...
 
#54 ·
Isn't that kind of like saying, "Florida is too hot so I'm moving to Saudi Arabia?"
 
#58 ·
The act of

- Catering schedules toward ATP
- Saturday finals
- Shortening season
- Unclear event titles
- $ dictating events
- Top players losing matches left and right (inconsistent)
- Unpopular/unliked top player
- Weird schedules pulling top events together
- No young players breaking through

...are all killing the WTA as a tour

Though, not everything can be fixed by WTA. The ones that WTA can fix are not being done.
 
#61 ·
Beijing is a mandatory so the field has to be better than a mini Paris event that's not even a P700. Also, Beijing is scheduled around holidays with Oct. 1-3 being off. How can you not have spectators around? It's disappointing most of the stadiums aren't even 1/5 filled during those days unless a Chinese player is playing.

Guangzhou is not scheduled directly after US Open.

They should probably put 125k on 2nd week of slams and Fed Cup to avoid weak fields. Also wtf is Fed Cup doing in between WTA events? Doha's Q is now extremely weak because every player ranked from 50 to 150 are playing Fed Cup. Do they know how to schedule events with ITF? :facepalm:
 
#70 ·
I was at the Toronto tournament in 2011 and it was Kvitova's first tournament after winning Wimbledon. She was just walking around the grounds with no one bothering her at all.

It was only just over a month after she won. I can't see that ever happening before.
 
#79 ·
Also...have any of you watched the French Open? The French show up in droves for weekends, but during the week they don't necessarily come in large numbers unless a popular French player is playing. Marion does not qualify in that category yet. She had unusual amounts of support for the 2011 French Open, but she isn't as popular as a Mauresmo or a Pierce, which is why the tennis interest has waned.

So it's not surprising that on workdays in a large city with no big star (no Maria, Serena, Vika, Pierce, Mauresmo, etc.), there was not a large French crowd.

Chinese events are the same way during the week. If it's not Li or Zheng, they aren't there.
 
#80 ·
Also...have any of you watched the French Open? The French show up in droves for weekends, but during the week they don't necessarily come in large numbers unless a popular French player is playing. Marion does not qualify in that category yet. She had unusual amounts of support for the 2011 French Open, but she isn't as popular as a Mauresmo or a Pierce, which is why the tennis interest has waned.

So it's not surprising that on workdays in a large city with no big star (no Maria, Serena, Vika, Pierce, Mauresmo, etc.), there was not a large French crowd.

Chinese events are the same way during the week. If it's not Li or Zheng, they aren't there.
And wednesdays as it's kids days, and often on fridays end of the afternoon
 
#91 ·
As a Frenchman, I am surprised to see those empty seats in the stadium. In the past with Mauresmo and Pierce there used to be much more people attending the early stages of the tournament! But WTA is not that much popular anymore as it used to be in France with the poor results of the French tenniswomen...
 
#92 ·
:help: Another classic Na-Mug's thread
:angel: Must be picturing himself as a warrior who's fighting against all these So-called prejudice and hatred
:tape: and guess what. Every single attempt made by him is dragging the whole thing into the opposite

4 WTA tournaments is indeed too much for China considering the present popularity of Tennis.Most people with common sense are simply complaining about moving the PPO away from Tokyo, I'd say its understandable.
As for those nonsense haters, the growing attendance in Beijing will simply makes them shut up.

So obviously, this thread is unnecessary and pretty ANNOYING :eek:
 
#95 ·
All minor tournaments will struggle to get attendance during day sessions.
The ATP isn't much better. Stockholm, Kuala Lumpur, etc. No one will come to watch #50 vs #70 on a Tuesday morning.

With that being said, you get the feeling that the WTA is trying to kill events such as Paris and Charleston in order to be able to sell the licence to Asia.
 
#103 ·
All minor tournaments will struggle to get attendance during day sessions.
The ATP isn't much better. Stockholm, Kuala Lumpur, etc. No one will come to watch #50 vs #70 on a Tuesday morning.

With that being said, you get the feeling that the WTA is trying to kill events such as Paris and Charleston in order to be able to sell the licence to Asia.
That's true. No Top Player will play in Paris anymore with that spot in the calendar. The WTA made it quite clear that they want the Top Players to play Dubai and Doha. The ones who have some free time and the 11-30 ranked players can show up for Paris.

And Charleston... That event has a lot of history, and that's actually the sole reason why players are still playing that event. I mean that part of the season made some sense when Amelia Island was still there. But as for now, most top players will just focus on red clay. It's a shame.
 
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