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EXCLUSIVE
THE
SCOOP: WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 26
ATP
Tour lays off 15 staffers,
cuts 2002 budget
By
Matthew Cronin
tennisreporters.net
 Still
reeling from the early springtime bankruptcy of one-time sports
marketing giant ISL, the ATP Tour has laid off 15 staff members
and has cut $7 million from its 2002 budget, tennisreporters.net
has learned.
"There's
no question it's a tough market out there," said ATP Vice
President of Communications Graeme Agars, who estimates that the
ATP Tour administrative office will carry a $50 million budget
in 2002. "We have a very conservative budget for next year.
It's been tough on everybody."
Four
of those staffers come from the communications department, including
communications managers Miki Singh (U.S.), Martin Daghas and Nathalie
Durot
(Europe) and Fiona Puller (Australia). ATP Director of Alumni
relations Jim
McManus, who has been with the ATP for the past 15 years, has
also been let
go. Agars said that all staffers were given substantial severance
packages
and added that all top executives have accepted a two-year-freeze
on their salaries.
The
cutbacks come as little surprise, as the ATP has been struggling
since
ISL's bankruptcy to sign sponsors for the coming year.
In
2000, the ATP signed a $1.2 billion, 10-year-deal with ISL, which
guaranteed the ATP and its nine Masters Series tournaments $120
million a
year in exchange for exclusive marketing right. But ISL never
came close to
realizing the $150 million or so it believed it could garner from
the sale of
television and sponsorship packages annually, and earlier this
year, it went
belly up. Fortunately for the ATP, when it signed the deal, it
forced the
banks that had written ISL's line of credit to guarantee two years
worth
of funding.
This
year, some $38 million of ISL's money flowed in ATP's administrative
coffers, which allowed it to go out and spend significant moneys
promoting
the tour via marketing campaigns like "New Balls, Please."
However,
even though it managed to take back all of its marketing rights
and
formed ATP Properties in July
– the
new subsidiary responsible for the
marketing and sales of all ATP commercial rights – the
tour was unable to
sign new significant sponsors nor strike any massive TV deals,
other than to
retain its crucial relationship with Mercedes-Benz.
"By
the time we got rolling with ATP properties, it was a little late
to strike major deals for 2002," said Agars. "But that
doesn't mean that we can't strike some big deal for 2003."
The
ATP has hired TWI, IMG's London-based television agency, to help
sell
its TV rights. The nine Tennis Masters Series tournaments, which
have a partnership, have decided to pool their TV rights, but
are now free to again sell individual title sponsors. Under the
ISL deal, all the tournaments except for the
Ericsson Open in Miami had to drop their title sponsorships. According
to
Agars, the tournaments have vowed not to drop their prize money
from the
$2,950,000 level in 2002.
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