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Hamburg, ATP to go to trial over tournament status

Germans don't buy 'Brave New World' without them

By Lisa Bose McDermott, Special to TennisReporters.net

Lawyers for the German Tennis Federation and the ATP Tour continue to duke it out in federal court about an alleged attempt to create a monopoly among elite tournaments.

The suit revolves around a move by ATP executives to change the landscape of elite tennis tournaments on the tour causing Hamburg to be left out of ATP Tennis Masters' Series if the plan proceeds. These mandated events attract the sports' top players competing for higher-ranking points.

The Germans filed the anti-trust lawsuit against the ATP on March 28, 2007 in the U.S. District Court in Delaware. The case goes to trial on July 21.

As part of the restructuring, the ATP would create the Masters 1000 series as well as the Open 500 tournaments. Hamburg, presently a Tennis Masters Series tournament, would not be one of the Masters 1000, one of the elite nine tournaments for the 2009 season. However, it would probably be an Open 500 because a spot has been reserved for it by the tour.

The player who wins one of the Masters 1000 tournaments would bank 1,000 ranking points. Presently, Masters' Series events cap out at 500 ranking points, which is the same amount of points that Hamburg's winner presently earns. Even if Hamburg is to become an Open 500 tournaments, the ATP's lawyers argue that the earlier proposed maximum ranking points from that level of a tournament would not necessarily be 500 points as the tournament officials fear in their lawsuit.

HOW WILL NEW STATUS AFFECT WHICH PLAYERS COMPETE?
But Hamburg also fears losing large sponsors and broadcasting rights that come with the losing the world's top players.

The tour's lawyers argue, "The complaint and the relief sought therein are barred because the alleged conduct will not lessen, destroy or prevent competition, tend to create a monopoly or created a dangerously probability of creating monopoly in any relevant market."

Monte Carlo's tournament officials filed a similar lawsuit last year but settled the dispute within four months. The July 21 trial date is almost exactly a year to the date of Monte Carlo's July 25, 2007 settlement.

Both sides have argued that some of the issues could be resolved by summary judgment, leaving the judge to make a decision about the case without a trial.

But U.S. District Judge Gregory M. Sleet sees otherwise. "The court finds that there are triable issues of fact raised on the claims raised by the parties' letters," Sleet wrote in the Feb. 25 order. Sleet has not ordered any settlement conferences in the case and no voluntary settlement talks have been entered on to the court docket if they occurred at all.

At the center of the controversy is the possibility that Hamburg or Monte Carlo will not be approved as TMS events for the 2009 tour season. Both of the tournaments' officials sued the ATP in U.S. District Court in Delaware in an effort to preserve their status of part of nine elite men's tennis tournaments. They call the measures being taken by the ATP's "Brave New World" schedule an attempt by the ATP to give what would be whittled down to eight TMS events a monopoly of the sports' top players competing for higher ranking points.

The ATP's lawyers are not discussing the case, however, their legal filings do it for them. On Friday night, the lawyers filed their responses to the Hamburg and Monte Carlo lawsuits.

The ATP's lawyers use the filings to bolster its case for the restructuring of the sports' calendar, saying, "The complaint and the relief therein are barred because defendants have acted lawfully and reasonably to enhance the staging, production and distribution of the sport of tennis worldwide and to ensure the ability of the ATP and tennis to compete effectively with other sports and entertainment alternatives," according to the ATP's filings.

The ATP's lawyers also say that its executives are negotiating joint broadcast rights for the Masters 1000 and Open 500 tournaments. However, in its Hamburg reply, the ATP denies that all media rights will be pooled and that the current plan calls for 16 ATP 500 tournaments.

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