Tennis fans petition to support ATP players

tennisfan08 · Improver

RE: Tennis fans petition to support ATP players

tennisfan08 · Improver

and more good news:

News in a German newspaper has it that players have already a candidate to compete against (?to replace ) ET

The original German article see here:
http://www.abendblatt.de/daten/2008/05/31/888033.html
31. Mai 2008
Tennis Machtkampf in der ATP
Von Jörg Allmeroth

Free translation just of the relevant sentences. Quote:
Fight for power in ATP
Top players Federer, Nadal and Djokovic want to get into Players Council and want to cause ATP boss Etienne de Villiers to fall.
(...)
European (players) have probably already agreed on a candidate, to compete against de Villiers: Croation Zeljko Franulovic. Tournament director of TMS Monte Carlo and at the moment tournament representative on the ATP board (...)

And here's the ATP profile for Zeljko Franulovic --
http://www.atptennis.com/en/aboutatp...asp#franulovic

Salmon · Tennis legend

It'll be fun come July - two self serving bodies playing tug o' war over who can make more money. I can hardly wait...

tennisfan08 · Improver

Greenleaf wrote:

It'll be fun come July - two self serving bodies playing tug o' war over who can make more money. I can hardly wait...

Sorry Greenleaf for answering only now. I have had some very busy days.

And: I am afraid we have to agree to disagree
For you this is very obviously all about egoism and MONEY, MONEY, MONEY.
I do not know why you feel like that.
I do not share your feelings.

Sport and especially tennis means a lot to me, it is more than "just sport" to me, I can learn from it and get inspiration for my life and how to live my life.

And I admire athlets and tennis players especially for their hard work, which began for them when they were young and continues to the end of their active days as athlets. To my mind and my feelings, they deserve every penny, cent or whatever currency they earn.

I do not want to change place with them. I am just very grateful that they choose to develop their talent and show good sport/great tennis.

So point one: it is totally okay for me that tennis players earn hopefully a lot of money during their active years.

Point two: the fight in ATp is not about money. ET has increased prize money for players. I have read he has promised even more raises in prize money again in a statement published in tennis week ... - yet players have signed a second players petition in 2008 to have a say when it comes to (new) candidates for the job and more influence in general for players in ATP.
And THAT is the point, that ATP has to live up to it's name and become an organisation that really and truly represents the interests of the players. And does not push them around, enforcing changes upon them.
Also see my next post with another article on the subject.

So, let's agree to disagree ... or have I convinced you

tennisfan08 · Improver

http://www.globesports.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080615.wspt-tebbutt16/GSStory/GlobeSportsOther/TOM+TEBBUTT

Chairman takes sport's top tour on a wild ride

TOM TEBBUTT

From Monday's Globe and Mail

June 15, 2008

Men's tennis is going through interesting times, particularly if you appreciate high-stakes poker.

The ATP Tour, which consists of tournaments outside the Grand Slams and team events, finds itself in a dicey situation three years after a change in leadership.

When ATP executive chairman Etienne de Villiers, who spent 15 years in a variety of high-level executive positions with the Walt Disney Co., took over in 2005, he had ambitions to bring about change.

His principal focus was the realignment of the ATP Masters Series, the group of nine elite, large-prize events that include the Rogers Cup.

His intention was to streamline the calendar by downgrading springtime clay-court events in Monte Carlo and Hamburg and replacing them with a joint men's and women's tournament in Madrid at a spectacular new $240-million facility (all currency U.S.) that boasts three retractable-roof stadiums.

Not wanting to lose their privileged spots, Monte Carlo and Hamburg balked.

Eventually, Monte Carlo reached a compromise with the ATP whereby it retained its Masters Series status, dates and ranking points, but was no longer guaranteed participation by top players.

Matters have not gone as smoothly with Hamburg, and the ATP is involved in a contentious court case that will go to trial by jury on July 21 in Delaware. Hamburg has refused a change to a lower-status event in the summer and is in full litigation mode, partly backed by Qatari interests who own 25 per cent of the event.

The organizers maintain the ATP does not have the right to revoke their event's status and have included an anti-trust element in their lawsuit. The ATP insists as a governing body it has the right to initiate scheduling changes for the good of the tour.

Mediation attempts appear to have failed and lawyers' fees are increasing (reportedly about $7-million for the ATP). If the ATP loses the anti-trust suit, it could go bankrupt under a worst-case scenario.

Not any time soon, as there would certainly be an appeal.

The trial is expected to last two or three weeks.

Top players such as Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, who fought de Villiers vigorously about Monte Carlo, have not been as vocal about Hamburg, an event that has little of Monte Carlo's cachet and has often been played in cold, damp mid-May weather.

Some ATP players want de Villiers, whose contract is up at the end of the year, ousted. There may have been warning signs at the beginning when this novice tennis administrator, originally hired as a chairman who would bring in a chief executive officer, decided he was capable of doing both jobs.

His reputation has been tarnished by a failed attempt to introduce round-robin tournaments in 2007 and by a perception he operates on his own too much.

On the positive ledger, de Villiers, who took over an already embroiled organization, has negotiated a 36-per-cent increase in prize money for 2009, earmarked $30-million over three years for player promotion and dared to try to modernize a tradition-bound, almost intractable, tour.

In the meantime, relatively quietly, the WTA Tour is enacting its Roadmap changes in 2009. The plan includes reducing its Tier I and Tier II events to 20 from 26, increasing its off-season to nine weeks from seven, increasing prize money to $84-million in 2009 from $63-million in 2006.

Some of the new funds will come from a three-year, $42-million deal for its Tour Championships, to be held in Doha from 2008 to 2010.

The women's Rogers Cup will be part of the top nine events, while the men's Rogers Cup is in no way compromised by the ATP's legal wrangling.

Federer, Nadal and Novak Djokovic, the top three players in the world, have reacted to all the controversy by deciding to run for the ATP's player council, which appoints three representatives to the six-member ATP board. The vote will take place on Saturday.

After more involvement with tennis politics and policy making, the trio may find that making changes in tennis is like trying to hit over a 10-foot net.

-----------------------------------------------------------
So - ET was hired origionally to function as chairman only -and then took over the position as chief executive officer as well. He really took over ATP.

I do not agree with Tom Tebbutt: he gives in too early and too easily when he says that trying to makes changes in tennis is like trying to hit over a ten-foot net

ATP was founded by players to cooperate with tournaments on a basis of equal partnership - with players having half of the power. ATP was founded to ensure exactly that. Only - (part of) these ideas and aims got lost on the way.
And my feeling is that Federer, Nadal and Djokovic are out to change that and to get half of the power back for the players.
And my feeling is they will succeed to do so

Salmon · Tennis legend

Let's agree to disagree...

john · Top national player

So do you think if Federer, Djokovic and Nadal get the "power" then their aims will be to pump more money towards the lower ends of the sport? Of course not, it's completely in their interests for more and more money and resources to be directed at the very top of the sport, which just makes things harder for up and coming players. As has been said, it's like the situation in football in this country. Give all the power to the top clubs and the grass roots will suffer.

For example, imo a problem in men's tennis is that the prize money on the challenger tour doesn't appear to be increasing anywhere near inflation. Can we trust Monsieurs Fed, Nads and Joker to have this at the top of their priority list or would it be best to leave running the game to the guys entrusted to do so?

steven · Tennis legend

Yes, I agree ... most of all, there are huge egos involved here and that never helps.

indiana · Tennis legend

I agree de Villiers and company have made mistakes.

For instance, the introduction of round robin tournaments was well recognised to be going to be the farce that it turned out to be by any tennis enthusuists that I respected, so gawd knows who they supposedly consulted.

And yes, there are definitely scheduling issues, particularly as regards spacing between leading tournaments. That I see as more of a problem than the number of tournaments, since as has been well-sated so many top players play well over the mandatory 13 tournaments, and some players in general play well into the 20s per annum, when only 18 count for ranking purposes.

I do therefore think many players bring on their own injury problems, chasing money or potentaily slightly increasing their ranking points. You can't just blame the authorities.

teenisfan seems to be somewhat in awe of the top players and seeing things very much through rose-tinted specs if he really thinks seeing the very top players such as Federer, Nadal and Djokovic having considerably more influence will be better for tennis professionals as a whole. Tennis so does not need a clique of top players having a great deal more influence.

Much more sensible would to just to employ experienced, sensible sports administrators, probably including former players, who have proven competence and care about the game.

Salmon · Tennis legend

Not one of the tennis players have a right to blame the ATP for their injuries. Nadal always grumbles, but look at his schedule from Monte Carlo....

Week 17 - Monte Carlo (played and won doubles)
Week 18 - Barca
Week 19 - Rome
Week 20 - Hamburg
Week 21 - Rest, from what I know.
Week 22 - Roland Garros
Week 23 - Roland Garros
Week 24 - Queen's (played doubles)
Week 25 - Hurlingham
Week 26 - Wimbledon
Week 27 - Wimbledon
Week 28 - Stuttgart

I am playing 11 out of the last 12 weeks and I am the favourite to reach all the finals (barring Hurlingham which is an exho). If I get injured it is obviously the ATP's fault, no?

john · Top national player

But Greenleaf, Federer, Djokovic and Nadal all want more power therefore they must be correct and we should petition in their favour no?

Salmon · Tennis legend

Yes!

Seriously, though, this could turn nastier. I think Madrid have already started builing the stadium that's supposed to replace Hamburg. What if the players kick out De Villiers, take control and now face a lawsuit from Madrid? It'll be terrible with most of the players who are against De Villiers being clay courters and most of the clay courters being Spaniards...

steven · Tennis legend

Greenleaf wrote:
I am playing 11 out of the last 12 weeks and I am the favourite to reach all the finals (barring Hurlingham which is an exho). If I get injured it is obviously the ATP's fault, no?

LOL that's exactly it - in just about every sport/game the top players come up with twisted logic like this, I'm sure it must be the effect of their inflated egos pressing on some part of the brain they shouldn't ...

Salmon · Tennis legend

I agree. That's why players/clubs should never be in power.

I'm not saying EDV is good (he should be sacked right now) but I don't want him gone if the alternative is worse...

tennisfan08 · Improver

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/06/22/sports/TEN-ATP-Player-Council.php

Federer, Nadal, Djokovic voted onto ATP Player Council The Associated Press Published: June 22, 2008

WIMBLEDON, England: Tennis' three top-ranked men, including No. 1 Roger Federer, were elected Saturday to two-year terms on the ATP Player Council.

In voting two days before Wimbledon begins, No. 2 Rafael Nadal and No. 3 Novak Djokovic were also elected to terms that begin Sunday.

In the past, top players have been reluctant to run for such positions, but Djokovic said the top three players jointly decided to become candidates.

"I think it's fantastic for the sport," Djokovic said shortly before the vote. "We're changing the face, changing the picture of everything in general.

"We decided together that this is the best thing for sport to join the player council and to try to be united in the future to make good decisions for us, for everybody. To be involved in all these major decisions and all the specifics, the details, is very important for us, because in the end we are the most important part of the sport. People are coming because of us. We have to defend our interests."

Federer, Nadal and Djokovic are among the players who have been unhappy with decisions by ATP chairman Etienne de Villiers, whose contract expires this year. There's also discontent about the extent of communication between players and the ATP board of directors, which has the lead role in making decisions about the tour.

One subject of debate has been the tour's attempts to restructure the spring clay-court schedule. The decision to downgrade the Hamburg tournament in 2009 from a top-tier event led to an antitrust lawsuit that's pending against the ATP.

Earlier this week, U.S. Davis Cup captain Patrick McEnroe said the involvement of the top players in such issues could have a major impact on the game for the next decade or more.

"The structure of the tour and how the ATP is configured could change," McEnroe said. "Maybe the players form their own union. There are a lot of ways this could go that would reshape professional tennis."

http://www.nzz.ch/nachrichten/sport/aktuell/politische_dribblings_in_wimbledon_1.766405.html23. Juni 2008, Neue Zürcher ZeitungPolitische Dribblings in WimbledonDer Kampf um die Macht auf der Männer-Tour beschleunigt sich ()Es zirkulieren zudem Mutmassungen, die ATP vom Wesen her einst eine Gewerkschaft riskiere die Spaltung. Das wäre eine fatale Entwicklung und könnte den Dachverband ITF allenfalls dazu verlocken, eine eigene Serie zu lancieren. Die ITF war 1989 bei der Gründung des neuen Turnier-Circuits (der ab 1990 lief und weitgehend von der ATP gesteuert war) durch die Spieler, angeführt unter anderen von Mats Wilander, formell aus der Führung der Tour verabschiedet worden. (...)

Free translation of the this excerpt from NZZ article: There are even rumours that ATP (originally a union) is about to break apart/to split. This would be a fatal development and could induce ITF to launch a tour itself. When the new tour was founded in 1989, players led by Mats Willander and others, said farwell to ITF as member of tour management.

First step has been done to get ATP to represent players again. But it is still a long way to go for new Player Council and new Player Representatives to clean up the mess that ET caused.

Nina Rota reports in her blog http://mvn.com/tennis/And here is the biggest problem of all. The ATP managed to get rid of the Masters event in Monte Carlo by allowing them to keep their Masters designation but removing it from the players required attendance list. They werent so lucky with Masters event in Hamburg. The Quatar tennis association owns part of the Hamburg Open and they have a lot more money that Monte Carlo so they werent willing to accept a deal. They also have a lot more money than the ATP.

Qatar and Dubai two lucrative stops on the both the ATP and WTA tour - are transforming their oil-based economies to more dependence on tourism and sporting events bring tourists. According to my sources, the ATP has spent $8 million dollars fighting Hamburg in court. The New York Times reports the amount as $7 million. My sources put the ATP yearly budget at around $11 million so you can see the problem.

Note: Hamburg sues ATP for damage compensation of 50 Millionen EURO, i.e. at $76.6M, see http://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=article.preview&articleid=59330 and http://www.abendblatt.de/daten/2008/06/19/895674.html

I keep my fingers crossed for players and new Player Council. It is a hell of a job to clean this up and get it straightened out. And I am so angry that it has come to this. If former player council and player representatives and ATP as a organization who should represents players, had done their jobs properly in the past, it would not be necessary for world best tennis players to get involved with solving this mismanagement mess.

And ET just wants to go on as if nothing had happened seehttp://www.atptennis.com/1/en/2008news/playercouncil.aspand seehttp://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/columnists/sfl-622brickerwimbledon,0,3639462.column

Charles Bricker June 22, 2008 WIMBLEDON ()I've seen nothing that suggests de Villiers will abandon his job before the end of his contract, Dec. 31. Quite the contrary.

His corporate communications director has been emphasizing that de Villiers, far from being concerned about calls for his resignation, is moving forward with the tour's day to day business, which included the recent announcement of a couple of new heavyweight sponsors Barclay's Bank and South African Airlines. ()

This is outrageous, that ET wants to continue instead of being properly ashamed for the mess he has caused with his mistakes and resign as a consequence. Players will really have to kick him out by force. My best wishes go with the players to be united and to have the strength and stamina to get ATP safely out of this crisis.

-- Edited by tennisfan08 at 12:26, 2008-06-23