Money Talks, But Who’s Listening?
!“Someone like Larry Ellison wants to invest into his event and make it the biggest possible, and he gets stopped by the ATP. If you’re a start-up, what would make you want to navigate through that and to go through that firing line? How can you step into tennis with any confidence? It’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard of.” — Andy Roddick, on the controversy over a proposed prize money increase at the Indian Wells Masters 1000.
Roddick made those remarks at a charity event a few days ago, referring to an ongoing prize-money controversy that has generated a lot of smoke and noise in the wake of a seemingly strange decision by the ATP board of directors.
Back in December, the board found itself deadlocked over what seemed like an unexpected windfall for players — an $800,000 increase for men’s prize money at Indian Wells. That represents a hefty 29 percent increase over the prize money level of 2012 ($5.5 million, but half of that was for the WTA pros under the equal prize money regimen).
According to the latest communique for the ATP, the problem appears to be that the tournament wants to bestow the additional remuneration (on players in the first three rounds of play) in an 82-18 percent split between, respectively, singles and doubles. But the ATP is philosophically wedded to an 80-20 split between singles and doubles — even though the long-standing dream of greater doubles participation by singles stars seems to have evaporated.
The difference in question seems relatively small, and that’s where — things get fishy — and make you wonder how much more there is to this story. Quite a bit, it turns out. The initial vote on the Indian Wells increase last December produced a deadlock because the three tournament representatives all voted against the increase, while the three player reps voted for it (ATP CEO Brad Drewett abstained).
Why would the tournament directors be against an increase at Indian Wells? Because it would up the ante on them, just as the Australian Open recently upped the ante for the other Grand Slam events with significant prize-money and perks increases. And just as the other majors can cry foul because of the Australian Open’s easy access to government money, the other ATP Tour events can claim that they’re at an enormous disadvantage trying to compete with Larry Ellison, the owner of Indian Wells — and the sixth richest man on earth.
“Their vote is purely political and we are appalled,” Moore told Tennis.com a few days ago, referring to the tournament directors. “They don’t want to see another tournament out-distancing them and that’s as clear as the nose on my face. . . the European tournaments don’t want to see us progressing beyond what they can do. It’s totally anti-competitive.”
In 2012, Indian Wells offered $5.5 million, more prize money than any other North American Masters Series tournament (its nearest rival was Miami, with $4.8 million). Of the three Masters Series tournaments in Europe — Madrid, Rome and Paris/Bercy — Madrid came the closest to being competitive with Indian Wells, but it was still a hefty $1.6 behind.
Roger Federer has written to Drewett, criticizing the stance of the tournament representatives. Meanwhile, Moore has said that if the ATP Board won’t approve the increase, Indian Wells would return to the 2011 level of compensation — which was a cool $1 million less than last year’s allotment.