[CillyUltra]

Originally Posted by tejmeglekvár

Poland is enough big country, not only 5 million ppl like Denmark.
With couple sponsors and decent media exposure it could do all right.
And even if Radwanska wont give a shit, there are poles outside top10 like Wozniacki, Lisicki, Radwanska the lesser, Wozniak, etc. Neighbours can watch their players too from Germany, Czech Rep, Slovakia, Hungary.

Right after Charleston...

[GoLdEnSeToV]

Originally Posted by Shvedbarilescu

I love Katowice. My best friend lives there and I always enjoy visiting Katowice. It's not the most beautiful city out there but it does have personality and it's quite lively. And the people are great. Would be absolutely delighted if there were to be a tournament here and I would definately go.

You said about me? Haha

You have right. It is not the most beautiful city, but the city is growing all the time. Katowice is the capital of Upper Silesia, so this is a typical industrial mining town. I hope the tournament will be there Of course, I'd be there for sure.

[ozza]

Least having it here on indoor clay would make more logical sense than the indoor hard event at Copenhagen ever did. You'd imagine it would draw a better field as a result too. And I imagine the crowds in general will be far superior to Copenhagen. So all in all it seems a positive change.

[babsi]

They just moved the Caro Open to another country.

[TeraByte]

Originally Posted by Wiggly

Good to hear.
Antwerp and Copenhagen were rather empty if the Belgian Sister or Caroline were't on court.

Do you know where the second court and practice courts will be?

Originally Posted by koyak

If this is true, maybe this same courts which are used to ITF 25k$?

No, these courts (Pro-Ten) are way too far from the Spodek (5,5 km) to make a nice tournament altogether. And I heard that they were going to close these courts anyway, because the owner of this grounds was changing.

They need just 4 courts maximum to organize a decent tournament of this size.
And when I went yesterday to Katowice, I realized that they can find enough space in the Spodek itself. First, they don't need an audience of 11.000 seats at Centre Court, it's not a Premier 5 tournament. Less than a half would be enough. So they can partition the main auditorium of Spodek in two, producing a main court and a smaller court, just as they do it in Linz (with a smaller space). Nearly 1/3 of stands in the Spodek is movable, by the way.
Additionally, there is a big skating rink in the Spodek complex of buildings, which is used also for other events, as bigger parts of it are also foldable. It has an audience of 1.500 and is 11 m high. In there, it is enough space for another two courts, to make it 4 altogether. The Spodek complex contains also a sports hall with an audience of 400, but I am not sure if it is large enough for a standarized court - still for a practice court it should be enough.

Map of the whole Spodek complex of buildings ("lodowisko" means "skating rink", "sala gimnastyczna" - "sports hall"):





Skating rink:




Sports hall:

[TeraByte]

http://www.dziennikzachodni.pl/artyk...chca,id,t.html (Tomasz Kuczyński in "Dziennik Zachodni" [West Daily], 2012-10-06)

We are saying „yes” but it is just preliminary stage of the negotiations, we will make the final decision before the end of this year – says Ewelina Kajzerek, President’s of Katowice P roxy for Sport (…) I don’t know what is the source of the Internet information that the matches in the Spodek will be played on clay – marvels Kajzerek. We were only talking about artificial surface.
We also know that we will need a practice court, but these are just technical details. For the time being we have to agree with representatives of organizers on financial issues. For us very important is the city budget for next year and possible expenditure on sports events. (…)

Anyway I agree with ozza that at this time of the year an indoor clay tournament would make more sense and would probably draw more attention of serious players and public, as a kind of a warm-up before Stuttgart and the whole Europe CC season.

[adam_ads_n]

Would be a very good decision. And even though it's completely opposite part of Poland to which I live, I would be glad to come. We need WTA tournament in Poland - since we lost Warsaw it's a pity there is no tournament at this level when we have 2 players in top 30 and we are a 39 million of people.

And yes - as far as I know Katowice love sport, plus it is close enough to Germany and Czech Republic so fans from there could also come

[Bartosh]

Originally Posted by adam_ads_n

plus it is close enough to Germany... so fans from there could also come

You mean Slovakia?

[adam_ads_n]

Originally Posted by Bartosh

You mean Slovakia?

That is why I wrote close enough

Indeed I forgot to mention Slovakia, as it's the closest one

[TeraByte]

Originally Posted by Bartosh

You mean Slovakia?

More close to Czech Rep., Slovakia and even Austria/Hungary than to Germany, but still Germany is a neighbour country, as it is also Ukraine, Belarus (and Lithuania - although I don't remember any tennis players from there)

[adam_ads_n]

Originally Posted by TeraByte

More close to Czech Rep., Slovakia and even Austria/Hungary than to Germany, but still Germany is a neighbour country, as it is also Ukraine, Belarus (and Lithuania - although I don't remember any tennis players from there)

Lina Stanciute

You obviously forgot about Калининградская Область

[TeraByte]

Originally Posted by adam_ads_n

Lina Stanciute

Ups... sorry.

[FoWTA]

I'd be surprised if they cancelled Copenhagen and added Katowice but we don't need another indoor tournament, there's too many boring indoor tournaments already.
Take a look at the ITF Antalya tournemants, they never play indoors even when it's cold.
Anyways Roland Garros is outside on clay so it would be better as well if it was outside.

[LoLex]

Originally Posted by FoWTA

I'd be surprised if they cancelled Copenhagen and added Katowice but we don't need another indoor tournament, there's too many boring indoor tournaments already.
Take a look at the ITF Antalya tournemants, they never play indoors even when it's cold.
Anyways Roland Garros is outside on clay so it would be better as well if it was outside.

There are actually less indoor tournaments than in the past.

[eDonkey]

Originally Posted by LoLex

There are actually less indoor tournaments than in the past.

True, but they are not as glorious as indoor tournaments in the past. And are ... in a way, they are boring right now.