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WTA officially announces 2016 calendar

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#1 ·
WTA ANNOUNCES 2016 CALENDAR
The WTA Board of Directors has approved the 2016 WTA Calendar, which includes a record nine WTA events across the Chinese Mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan, compared to two WTA events there in 2012.


ST. PETERSBURG, FL, USA - The WTA announced Wednesday that its Board of Directors has approved the calendar for the 2016 season. As the global leader in women's professional sport, the 2016 WTA calendar will include 56 WTA events, in addition to the Olympic Games Tennis Event in Rio de Janeiro, and four Grand Slams.

The Board approved the relocation of two International events as the Pattaya City and Baku tournaments relocate to Kaohsiung, Taiwan (Week 6, replacing Pattaya City) and Nanchang, capital city of Jiangxi province from Chinese Mainland (Week 31, replacing Baku). Host city of a WTA 125k Series event in 2014 and 2015, Nanchang will elevate its status to an International event for 2016.

"Our mission is to deliver a premier, compelling global sport entertainment experience that engages our fans around the world," said WTA Chairman & CEO, Stacey Allaster. "As the WTA expands to new markets, our goal is for fans to witness the most inspirational sport entertainment experience on Earth. Our players compete for the ultimate year-long prize, the Billie Jean King Trophy presented to the champion at the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global."

Chinese Mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan, which are the key growth markets for WTA, will host a record nine WTA Premier and International tournaments in 2016. In comparison, there were only two WTA events - Beijing and Guangzhou - in China during the 2012 season.

2016 WTA Calendar - Nine WTA Events in Chinese Mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan
Premier Mandatory: Beijing
Premier 5: Wuhan
WTA Elite Trophy: Zhuhai
International: Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Kaohsiung, Nanchang, Shenzhen, Tianjin

The WTA's long-term strategy of growing women's tennis in the Asia-Pacific region is built around an expansive footprint in China and the region, featuring Singapore hosting the prestigious year-end WTA Finals for a record five years from 2014 to 2018, and a newly added WTA Elite Trophy Zhuhai for another record five years from 2015 to 2019.

The season-long build-up will culminate once again in Singapore for the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global from October 23 to Nov 1.

Other Highlights for the 2016 WTA Calendar:
• In 2016, Louisville, Kentucky, USA becomes host to an International level WTA event for the first time in Week 34 staged the same week as New Haven, a Premier-level event. The United States will host a total of nine events in 2016, including the US Open.
• With the Olympic Games Tennis Event set to take place in Rio de Janeiro from August 6 to 14, Stanford will move to Week 29 (week of July 18), one week after Wimbledon and will be followed by Montréal.
• After the Olympics, the US hardcourt series will resume in Cincinnati (Week 33, week of August 15).
• With an expanded and enhanced grass court season, an International event in Mallorca will debut in Week 24 (week of June 13), opposite Birmingham.
• Doha will host a Premier 5 event in Week 8 of 2016 (week of February 22). Doha and Dubai rotate years hosting the Premier 5 event.

Other calendar changes approved:
• Effective in 2015, the International event in Osaka will be relocated to Tokyo and will continue to be held the week immediately after the US Open.

Source: http://www.wtatennis.com/news/article/4783611/title/wta-announces-2016-calendar

Direct link to new calendar: http://www.wtatennis.com/SEWTATour-Archive/Archive/AboutTheTour/TourCalendar_2016.pdf
 
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#113 ·
Given the important of Europe to all the tennis tours, and europe si the most important region for all the tours, it is stupid to remove one of the 9 biggest stops on the WTA and send it to Asia when Europe only has 2 and Asia has 3 already. I'd move Madrid to another sport in Europe though, however it's a joint event with the ATP so the WTA benifits.
 
#111 ·
Beijing is a combined event with Djokovic and Nadal usually in the men's draw.
The success of the tournament won't depend exclusively on the women's event.

WuHan will be a more accurate test on how Chinese fans are responding to the post-Li Era.
 
#120 ·
Wuhan will not be accurate this year because the Chinese National Holidays fall in that week.
 
#125 ·
Another MM in China :spit:

Some good things too:

-Grass tournament in Mallorca :cheer:
-Louisville MM should be a nice addition to the American swing :cheer: Especially after Carlsbad was stripped.
-I like Taiwan so the new Kaohsiung tournament should be nice too :) And it was re-located from Pattaya which is an Asian tournament. (Would have been better if it were a Chinese mainland tourney but oh well)

Chinese tournaments next year:
-Beijing
-Zhuhai
-Tianjin
-Hong Kong
-Wuhan
-Nanchang
-Shenzhen
-Guangzhou

In 2012 we only had Beijing and Guangzhou :spit:
 
#131 ·
In fairness we can't complain, Europe shows absolutely no commitment to sports events any more, the Netherlands just pulled out of hosting the European Games in 2019 due to costs, which means if they're to go ahead it'll likely be Russia or Turkey. Governments can't be seen to spend money of things deemed "frivolous" and private companies wouldn't see enough return from a tennis event an pick the events they sponsor more wisely now than before.
 
#132 ·
In fairness we can't complain, Europe shows absolutely no commitment to sports events any more, the Netherlands just pulled out of hosting the European Games in 2019 due to costs, which means if they're to go ahead it'll likely be Russia or Turkey.
Because it was a very stupid idea to begin with and it was obvious from the beginning that it will go back and forth between Azerbaijan, Turkey and Russia before it dies out, as no one else can be bothered to spend so much money on something that generates so little interest. And for a very good reason.
 
#135 ·
North American tournaments have no gov't backing. If Europe can't compete in the global competition for tournaments. :shrug: Anyway the vast majority of major tournaments aren't in China anyway. China is making a dent only in MMs. Think of Aussie players too. ;) The henny pennys are making loud noises :lol:
 
#137 ·
Louisville MM out of how many NA tournaments? Stacey would be foolish not to take Chinese money while it's there. The tournaments at stake are just internationals anyway. They're not exactly immutable parts of tennis tradition. The ATP and WTA tours are incomparable financially.
 
#143 ·
I think you are getting confused of my post. The government back up is a recent issue not something from the past, so I am not surprised some of the existing events did not require government support. However, I remember reading New Haven going to the government when they couldn't find sponsor one of the year and it was in the process of being downgraded to international, so I mentioned New Haven and questioned Louisville.

To be honest I don't think WTA has much of a say in combined events and most of the NA events are combined ones... meaning WTA leeching off ATP, except Stanford, New Haven, Louisville and Quebec City.

As a business woman Stacey is milking all that she can, but what will happen in the future when the Chinese is no longer milk-able? Was it necessary to tell the Japanese to GTFO on their Premier 5 contract just so they can fit Wuhan in the schedule? I don't think they really need to make a current sponsor and event unhappy just so they can give the Chinese what they want, but they did, so.

...and look what happened this year? Osaka couldn't find a sponsor and couldn't last by itself, who took the event? Tokyo.

Yes the cheap knockoff version of the European Games :sobbing: Which will due to its cheapness likely be the more successful event long term.
:oh:

Also, while I think Nanchang is almost bound to be a flop / vulture-fest, we really need to be less judgmental of all these Chinese tournaments. Attendance for Wuhan was great last year despite Li Na not showing up (yes the spectators had bought tickets, but they could have just left right), and the crowd seemed really into the matches anyway. Beijing appears poorly attended because, as is typical for Chinese cities, the stadiums were far too large compared to the crowds they could draw in, and there are far too many VIP boxes that end up empty (typical Chinese patronage).
Funny.

So you tell someone who purchased the tickets to not show up because Li Na is not playing? I mean yeah most of them purchased the tickets for Li. However, these tickets are not cheap, especially for the big courts... and most of the people have plans made well ahead so they will be there, so of course they will show up. Wuhan lands on holiday week this year, so they should have good attendance. If not then Stacey should be worried.

Beijing have had the national holidays backing them up, so they should have been well attended. This year will be a first test for Beijing because they will have no Li Na, possibly no Zheng Jie, no Peng Shuai and no national holidays. On top of that, I'd like to see if Serena, Maria and other top players will all show up to support the Asian Swings this year.
 
#140 ·
Also, while I think Nanchang is almost bound to be a flop / vulture-fest, we really need to be less judgmental of all these Chinese tournaments. Attendance for Wuhan was great last year despite Li Na not showing up (yes the spectators had bought tickets, but they could have just left right), and the crowd seemed really into the matches anyway. Beijing appears poorly attended because, as is typical for Chinese cities, the stadiums were far too large compared to the crowds they could draw in, and there are far too many VIP boxes that end up empty (typical Chinese patronage).
 
#189 ·
Forgive me if this was asked earlier, but how is Dubai moved back to P470 and Doha back to a P5, though this time they don't change positions in the calendar? What's the point of constantly changing the level of these two tournaments every year? And Dubai has most money and the better fan support, so it would appear to be a no-brainer that it should always be a P5 tournament.
 
#167 ·
After another thought? Is anybody worried that the WTA 125 Series could become the cheap way of hosting women's tennis? I mean some venues could give-up, stop making it work and not be a International and host a WTA 125.

I know that's not the plan, but over time if more ex-tournaments become WTA 125's and some licence owners end their tournaments (a few did in the mid-2000's) and WTA 125s attract more and more mid level names then the law of unintended consequences kicks in and the WTA 125 because the new international level tournament with less money going to players :(

Nightmare scenario?
 
#173 ·
Top 10 players cannot compete in VTA 125k. Players between 11 and 50 cannot enter also, but they could accept wild cards (2 or 4, depending on the tournament). So there is a good possibility to have only players from bellow #51 at such a tournament.
 
#183 ·
The also have different logos for each category. Gold, silver and white.
The WTA has Premier and International (+ WTA 125). No distinction between a Premier Mandatory and a Premier 470.

Courtney Nguyen talked a lot about these kind of issues so hopefully she felt confident enough to express her opinion and somehow help them.
 
#185 ·
Well, there's something I agree with her on. If she can make some waves happen regarding that, then I will have a bit more respect for her. Doesn't change the fact she's too much of a gossip hag to be taken seriously as a journalist, hopefully this job at the WTA humbles her professionalism.

I like the way the ATP system has managed their naming system for tournaments. It works for them and it could work for the WTA. The WTA has had atrocious marketing regarding this. The fact the word Mandatory is even mentioned is ridiculous. The WTA is not some government organisation, it's catering to entertainment. It's almost telling the public that the players HAVE to be here or else. It's questionably unprofessional. You keep that shit behind closed doors, the paying public should not be openly privy to the provisional management of players and how their obligations are decreed. Anyone who wants to know can find out through their list of terms and conditions which they have access to.
 
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