[StoneRose]

At least there is a crowd in Paris.

[moodin0931]

[TheBoiledEgg]

Originally Posted by A-Bond

Well the tournament certainly has suffered after the retirement of Mauresmo, Pierce, Golovin and Henin, who were crowd-favourites. Somehow it doesn't work with Bartoli.

The Open GDF Suez is my favourite tournament, but I do have to agree that the attendance so far has been very disappointing. You also have to include that the Stadiums in China are much bigger than the Stade Coubertin, so you know that there are really not many spectators when the seats are 10% filled.

I really hope the attendance will be bigger for the weekend, it's such a cool tournament and I don't wanna see another Indoor event being cancelled.

Paris used to be after Tokyo PPO and was big until Doha/Dubai became a P5
the farcical thing when Mauresmp couldnt play Doha after she won Paris cos she had to play the Monday after really knocked Paris back
Now its straight after AO so even worse.

[Melange]

Move Aust Open to Wuhan

[Aravanecaravan]

Originally Posted by NashaMasha

As for attendance in Paris - it's the same city where RG has a huge crowd and attendance. It's just WTA's fault that their non Slam events are losing popularity , their ridiculous Premier Mandatory/Premier5/Premier brands and absence of real stars outside top 3

I agree with this--and I would say it's because the women's tour is oversaturated with events. Having multiple events each week dilutes the field(s), negates the possibilutes of consistent rivalries and confuses the casual tennis fan as to who the key players in the game really are. If all of the players had one two options each week--play or not play at one specific tour level tournament--there'd be more matches between the top players, and a better chance for the WTA to market its product.

As for the original premise, moving the tournament won't help. The organizers of the event in Amelia Island/Ponte Vedra thought Washington D.C was a better option, but the crowds there are worse. China has the same problems. Matches during the week have poor turnout because adults work and kids are in school and so that leaves aluminum seats to watch the tennis. It isn't brain surgery, but apparently Na-Mug can't figure it out.

[Melange]

Originally Posted by Lin Lin

Watch and learn from the master

[JarkaFish]

Originally Posted by Aravanecaravan

I agree with this--and I would say it's because the women's tour is oversaturated with events. Having multiple events each week dilutes the field(s), negates the possibilutes of consistent rivalries and confuses the casual tennis fan as to who the key players in the game really are. If all of the players had one two options each week--play or not play at one specific tour level tournament--there'd be more matches between the top players, and a better chance for the WTA to market its product.

As for the original premise, moving the tournament won't help. China has the same problems. Matches during the week have poor turnout because adults work and kids are in school and so that leaves aluminum seats to watch the tennis. It isn't brain surgery, but apparently Na-Mug can't figure it out.

Er, that'd be terrible; having multiple events each week is absolutely necessary for a multitude of reasons.

[ozza]

I think you just have to accept you're not going to get great crowds for the whole week at most events. I would be more concerned with weekends' attendances. Which brings me to the point of why do a lot of WTA events have Saturday finals, they should have Saturday semi-finals and Sunday final (outside of places like Doha where the weekend is Friday-Saturday) in order to get the best attendances for the latter stages of events.

Really the WTA calendar is set out in a way now where they basically want the top players to play the following schedule :-
Brisbane, Australian Open, Doha, Dubai, Indian Wells, Miami, Stuttgart, Madrid, Rome, French Open, Wimbledon, Canada, Cincinnati, US Open, Tokyo, Beijing, YEC.
That is basically the schedule that top players are forced to follow and as a result means everywhere else is unlikely to get good fields.

[Lesborah]

Originally Posted by Melange

Move Aust Open to Wuhan

The best solution. you should replace Stacey

[flareon]

NA MUG 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 the weekend will be full as well. Sometimes you really are a mess!

[*Jool*]

killing the wta schedule and having such draws explain poor attendance.
China is not the solution ..

[JarkaFish]

Originally Posted by Lesborah

The best solution. you should replace Stacey

He forgot to add that the entire top 10 besides Na should be replaced with Chinese look-a-likes!

[flareon]

Originally Posted by *Jool*

killing the wta schedule and having such draws explain poor attendance.
China is not the solution ..

This

[August]

Originally Posted by coolfish1103

- No women's history.
- Too many events in North America being big ones.
- No need to smash Premier 5s back-to-back to create dreadful fields.

As of now there are:

- 2 Premier Mandatory in US/North America
- 1 Premier Mandatory in Spain/Europe
- 1 Premier Mandatory in China/East Asia

- 1 Premier 5 in Doha/Middle East
- 1 Premier 5 in Canada/North America
- 1 Premier 5 in US/North America
- 1 Premier 5 in Italy/Europe
- 1 Premier 5 in Tokyo/East Asia

= 4 North America
= 2 Europe
= 2 East Asia
= 1 Middle East

I won't mind if the Cincy one goes to South America or Africa.

I think the most stupid P5 is Doha. They have money, they don't need a P5 status. ATP has shown that Dubai 500 has a better field than non-mandatory Mickey Carlo Masters 1000. So, have Dubai a bit earlier and give its current spot to South America for a P5. Cincy is good as it is, it logical to have a P5 in USA at that time.

Then what about Africa? P5 there would be too big a risk, they don't have the money of Asia. But I'd like to see a "normal" Primier e.g. in South Africa with some big names. And if it worked, then give YEC there to see if Africa is ready for a P5 and an African swing.

[ozza]

Originally Posted by August

I think the most stupid P5 is Doha. They have money, they don't need a P5 status. ATP has shown that Dubai 500 has a better field than non-mandatory Mickey Carlo Masters 1000. So, have Dubai a bit earlier and give its current spot to South America for a P5. Cincy is good as it is, it logical to have a P5 in USA at that time.

Then what about Africa? P5 there would be too big a risk, they don't have the money of Asia. But I'd like to see a "normal" Primier e.g. in South Africa with some big names. And if it worked, then give YEC there to see if Africa is ready for a P5 and an African swing.

This isn't actually true. ATP Dubai never really has had a better field than ATP Monte Carlo (who only really Federer skips these days). It's because if you make these events non-mandatory, they will buy up the top players, but you end up with a really lopsided field where it will have like a couple of players ranked between about 10-40 because these players aren't getting paid to play there, and know with say the top 4 in the world playing that they have no chance of winning, and the prize money isn't enough to entice them.

I don't really have a problem with the Doha-Dubai back to back. Because if you changed one to South America as suggested you will get very few players actually play both events, because it just won't be viable to do so.