Should the Year-End Championships Rotate Cities?
There’s been a bit of discussion recently regarding the location of the future year-end championships for the ATP Tour and Sony Ericsson WTA Tour. For many years, the men’s “Masters” was held in New York City at Madison Square Garden and later in Germany. The women’s year-end championship was also played for many years at Madison Square Garden. For the past decade or so, both year-end events, which feature
the top eight players in the year-long points race, have been played in one city for a couple years and then moved to another city, e.g. Houston and Shanghai for the ATP and Los Angeles and Madrid for the WTA Tour. Should these events be held in the same city “forever” or should they rotate cities and continents every few years? The answer to that question really depends on the goal of the year-end championships… is its purpose to create another memorable “tournament” that develops into a legacy? Or is it to help spread the appeal of the sport of tennis by showcasing the very best players in tennis for different global audiences? Given that the leaders of the ATP Tour and Sony Ericsson WTA Tour have chosen to schedule the next several years in new cities for 3-4 year terms, one assumes that their primary goal is building interest in the sport globally.
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