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WTA Tour CEO Larry Scott -- Year-end Press Conference Transcript
Posted on November 12, 2007
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Madrid, Spain
Good evening. As is custom after the last match of the season, I like to make myself available to the media just to reflect back on the year and to preview future developments for the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour.
2007 was a remarkable year and it's fitting that it ended with one of the most memorable matches of the Tour season.
On court there were many stories, including Justine Henin solidifying her place as the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour No.1 right now; Maria Sharapova coming back and having a strong finish after a difficult year for herself; the Williams sisters coming back, first Serena at the Australian Open, Venus at Wimbledon competing at the top again. It's great to see and it seems like we are always talking about newcomers in the game.
Every year there are fresh faces. This year Agnes Szavay, Anna Chakvetadze and others coming. It's a very exciting time in women's tennis with the depth and quality of the competition. The on-court has never been better and never been more competitive.
Off court it was a truly an historic year as well. There were several milestones that will go down in history. The achieving of equal prize money at Roland Garros and Wimbledon ended a long campaign started by Billy Jean King over 30 years ago.
Passage of the Tour's Roadmap plan which is going to result in a major restructuring of the Tour calendar from 2009, as well as a 40% increase in Tour prize money. The emergence of China as a major force in world tennis, particularly women's tennis and the deal to have one of the Tour's biggest events there. As well as our agreement to have the Caja M'gica also be the home of one of the top events on the Tour when we have mandatory equal prize money tournaments in 2009. And of course the deals to bring our year-end Sony Ericsson Championships to Doha, Qatar from 2008 to 2010 and into Istanbul, Turkey from 2011 to 2013 has really taken these Championships to a whole new level. Overall there has been a five-fold increase in Tour sponsorship and Championships revenues since 2003, and close to one and half time increase in overall Tour revenues during that same period.
Over the next 2 years we are going to see many very exciting developments in women's tennis. We are going to take the success we've had here and take it to new heights. Continued global expansion in China and the Middle East in particular. In 2008 the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour will be opening its first ever Asia-Pacific headquarters in Beijing and with the Championships going to the Middle East that will continue to be an area where we develop further.
Equality in the game of tennis is something that's going to take significant steps forward next year. With the Sony Ericsson Championships playing equal prize money. This year the prize money was $3,000,000. Next year it will go to $4,450,000 putting in on a par with the men's Tennis Masters Cup. So another step towards equality in terms of prize money.
But as we announced at the Madrid City Hall the other day the fight for equality will be off the court as well with the strengthening of the Tour's partnership with UNESCO led by Venus Williams, Tatiana Golovin and Zheng Jie of China as ambassadors for gender equity. We are going to continue to develop programmes that help promote gender equity around the world and solidify our athletes' position as role models for women around the world.
We are also going to see more marketing and promotion. We are going to launch the first advertising campaign for women's tennis since 2003 when the Tour had a global advertising campaign called "Get in touch with your feminine side." We are launching a new campaign next year which is currently in development.
You are also going to see next year significant activities taking advantage of the emergence of digital technology and the internet. We are going to be taking our TV pictures and showing more highlights online next year. From each of our Tier I tournaments next year we'll be live streaming the finals from those events.
We'll have a Chinese language website, the first time the Tour will have a website in another language and fans in China will be able to follow the Tour in their own language next year. All the tournaments and participating player sites will be linked together in what we will call the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Internet Network so that fans can more seamlessly go back and forth and follow all the players through their online activities.
Over the next 2 years the Roadmap will come and we will be back here in Madrid in May 2009 with one of the elite four tournaments on the Tour and that will represent a healthier schedule and unlock a lot more value.
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