Changes brewing at the ATP

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601079&sid=aWnYvZmkBo4o&refer=home


ATP Tour Wants to Monopolize Tennis, Lawyer Says (Update2)
By Sophia Pearson

July 21 (Bloomberg) -- The ATP Tour, the governing body of men's professional tennis, wants to monopolize the sport with a plan that downgrades the Hamburg Masters tournament, a lawyer for organizers of the German event told jurors.

ATP's Brave New World restructuring plan would control player participation in tournaments and make it harder for Hamburg to attract star players, attorney Robert MacGill said at the start of a trial in federal court in Wilmington, Delaware.

The not-for-profit German Tennis Federation sued ATP in March 2007, claiming the plan, which would strip Hamburg of its Masters status, is ``anticompetitive'' and violates U.S. antitrust laws. Players in the Masters series can earn more world-ranking points than in regular tournaments, though not as many as Grand Slams events, such as Wimbledon, the U.S. Open and the French Open. The Hamburg Masters, held in May, is the last major warm-up for the French tournament.

``This is the end of tennis in Hamburg,'' MacGill said of the plan. ``There wasn't any reason or business justification for any of this.''

Lawyers for ATP argued that it has the right and authority to make decisions on how the tour is operated.

`False Sense of Entitlement'
``ATP and its directors acted reasonably and responsibly,'' attorney Brad Ruskin said. ``Hamburg has a false sense of entitlement.''

ATP President Etienne de Villiers announced plans last year to restructure the men's calendar to reduce injuries and ensure top players take part in the most prestigious events. The 2009 calendar would create three tiers of ATP tournaments: the Masters Cup and Masters Series 1000, Masters Series 500 and the ATP 250. There would be eight Masters Series tournaments instead of the current nine.

The plan would relegate Hamburg's tournament from the highest tier to a second-tier ranking and move the event to July, leaving the organizers little leverage to woo the best players, MacGill said. Spain's Rafael Nadal, the No. 2 player in the world, beat top-ranked Roger Federer on May 18 to win this year's Hamburg Masters for the first time.

``ATP knew exactly what it was doing. It was locking up the market for itself,'' MacGill told jurors.

13,500-Seat Stadium
Hamburg, the second-largest city in Germany, is home to one of the biggest tennis stadiums in the world, MacGill said. The German Tennis Federation's 1.7 million members spent more than $45 million on the 13,500-seat stadium, MacGill told jurors.

ATP directors voted to approve the Brave New World plan after a series of backdoor deals that transferred Hamburg's membership rights to Shanghai and gave Madrid Hamburg's current tournament slot, MacGill said. ATP, motivated by money, was paid more than $29 million by Shanghai and about $32 million by people in London who bought Shanghai's rights to the Tennis Masters Cup in 2009, MacGill told jurors.

The restructuring plan was approved amid objections from 20 European tournament directors in January 2007. The top 20 men's tennis players also objected once the plan was announced in March 2007, MacGill said.

``ATP should be allowed to make basic decisions on how to improve its product and provide what players and fans want,'' Ruskin said. ``This was the furthest thing from some secret backroom deal.''

Alternatives Considered
Ruskin argued that the board communicated frequently with members prior to announcing the plan and considered several alternatives before making a decision. In addition, the German Tennis Federation knew that as part of its contract with the tour it agreed that decisions on dates and tournament placement were within the ATP's authority.

``ATP has bylaws that everyone agreed to as members of the organization,'' Ruskin said. ``All 63 tournaments are the major league. They're still in the top 20 just no longer in the top nine.''

MacGill countered that ATP's bylaws create automatic renewal rights for tournament members as long as they comply with certain provisions, which Hamburg did. ATP set up a sham application schedule for sanctioning tournaments in the new plan last year knowing that the process was prejudged and predetermined, MacGill said.

``The board agreed to move Hamburg months before the deadline to submit applications,'' he said.

He told jurors to note the stadium's current market value of $31.1 million and the German Tennis Federation's membership value of $45 million when considering damages.

The case is Deutscher Tennis Bund v. ATP Tour Inc., 07CV178, U.S. District Court, Delaware (Wilmington).

To contact the reporter on this story: Sophia Pearson in Wilmington, Delaware, at spearson3@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: July 21, 2008 18:25 EDT
 
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/21/sports/tennis/21tennis.html?_r=1&ref=tennis&oref=slogin

Deep Divisions in Men’s Tennis Are Likely to Be Exposed at Trial
By JOE DRAPE

The executive chairman of the ATP, Étienne de Villiers, and his general counsel warned executives at the sports marketing giant IMG that their business would suffer if they testified against the ATP in an antitrust lawsuit, according to a letter written by IMG’s senior counsel.

IMG, a pioneer in sports management, took the threat seriously and will not make its employees available to testify in the $77 million lawsuit that begins Monday in United States District Court in Wilmington, Del.

The case pits the German tennis federation against the ATP, which is aggressively trying to restructure its tour. The case has shaken up the lucrative, tight-knit world of men’s professional tennis with charges of payoffs and witness tampering. At issue, beyond money, is how much control a sanctioning body has over its membership.

“I don’t think the players realize the seriousness of it,” said Bob Bryan, a former member of the ATP’s Player Council, who, with his twin, Mike, is ranked No. 2 in the world in doubles. “Financially, it would be a killer. It could really cripple the ATP. Potentially it maybe could dissolve the ATP.”

Tour professionals and tennis enthusiasts alike, however, will be following the trial closely for glimpses of the backroom hardball played by the sport’s various constituencies. Adding to the intrigue has been the sealing of most of the nearly 700,000 pages of documents related to the case at the ATP’s request, and the refusal of lawyers on both sides to comment.

In fact, the letter from IMG’s John Raleigh, senior vice president for corporate legal affairs, to Robert MacGill, a lawyer representing the German federation, is under seal at the ATP’s request until after the jury is picked. The letter was part of a transcript from a pretrial hearing before Judge Gregory Sleet on Wednesday, when MacGill asked that the IMG executives be subpoenaed to discuss the witness intimidation.

Sleet denied the request; MacGill refused to comment.

The transcript of the hearing, however, indicated that lawyers for the organizers of the tournament in Hamburg, Germany, a clay-court event which is to be downgraded from the top tier of tournaments for 2009, contend that the Germans were victims of a pay-for-play conspiracy. MacGill said he would present evidence that organizers of the Shanghai tournament paid the ATP $29 million to be upgraded to a premier event, according to the transcript. ATP officials then offered Hamburg organizers $4 million to $8 million to accept its demotion.

The ATP board has already approved a system in which the top players must commit to play (or, in case of injury, attend) all eight of its top tournaments or risk financial penalties and suspension.

A spokesman for the ATP, Kris Dent, refused to address specifics, but said the organization, which governs the rules and conducts 63 tournaments on the men’s tour, was merely trying to maximize the sport’s potential.

“We believe that we have acted responsibly to improve the sport for the benefit of all our members and fans and we remain very confident of our position in regards to this litigation,” he said.

The letter from Raleigh outlines the pressure exerted by de Villiers and his general counsel, Mark Young, on IMG. Three of the company’s executives — Gavin Forbes, Fernando Soler and Adam Barrett — had agreed to testify at the trial at the request of the German tennis federation. Last week, however, IMG reversed course and notified MacGill that they would not testify.

In the letter, Raleigh describes a meeting on June 26 attended by de Villiers, Young, Forbes, Soler and the IMG president George Pyne. There, the company was told it would not be “in IMG’s interest for the ATP to lose the case.” The company represents many of the sport’s biggest stars, including Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, and operates some tournaments, including the Sony Ericsson Open.

Raleigh said Young also told them that “they are not required to testify and could not be compelled by Hamburg to do so as long as they remain more than 100 miles outside of the Court’s jurisdiction,” according to the letter.

Referring to a June 30 follow-up phone conversation with Young, Raleigh wrote that Young “stated emphatically if IMG employees were to testify at the trial, the ATP would view IMG and the IMG employees as having taken Hamburg’s side against the ATP in the litigation.”

Raleigh wrote, “Based on the above’s described conversations and on other conversations IMG employees have had over the years with the current ATP management, it is clear that if we were to voluntarily make our employees available to testify at trial, we would be jeopardizing assets that we have spent many years and many millions of dollars building.”

Dent, the ATP spokesman, denied that de Villiers and Young threatened IMG. The ATP has reportedly already spent more than $7 million on legal and court fees related to the case. And with the lawsuit blocking final plans for 2009, the ATP has had trouble lining up sponsors, Dent said.

“This letter that describes the meeting is inaccurate and we add that the court rejected the relief that was sought by the plaintiffs,” Dent said.

Christopher Clarey contributed reporting.
 
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/22/sports/tennis/22tennis.html?ref=sports

July 22, 2008
Lawyers for a Tournament Promoter Accuse the ATP of Manipulating Top Players

By MICHAEL BRICK
WILMINGTON, Del. — Under the yellowing light fixtures of a boxy fourth-floor courtroom, jurors heard accusations of manipulation on the men’s tennis tour Monday in a case that could reorder the control of some international sports.

Around the spectators’ gallery, dark briefcases shared bench space with brightly colored Wilson athletic bags. Agents for top players attended the opening arguments in pursuit of newly exposed details of tournament revenue to report to their clients, many of whom were in Toronto for the Rogers Cup.

The antitrust lawsuit in United States District Court promises to reveal financial arrangements of a plan known as Brave New World, an effort by the ATP Tour to reinvigorate the sport.

The jurors, selected from a group of three dozen candidates who displayed little awareness of professional tennis, listened attentively as lawyers for a German tournament promoter argued the legal backwaters of civil antitrust law.

“The ATP knew that if it controlled the player-services market, it controlled everything in tennis,” Robert D. MacGill, a lawyer for the Germans, said in his opening statement.

“It’s as simple as if you don’t have players, you don’t have a tournament.”

A lawyer for the ATP Tour, Brad Ruskin, disputed those accusations.

“What they’re asking for is special protections, and what they’re hypocritically complaining about in this case is the very types of rules, the very types of structures they have advocated,” he said.

In court documents, the German Tennis Federation has accused the ATP Tour of unfairly manipulating the control of star players to steer money to favored tournaments at the expense of promoters in Hamburg.

The Germans are seeking $77 million in damages. Financial damages in antitrust cases are often tripled.

The outcome of the trial, expected to last two weeks, will probably affect individual sports like golf and skiing that do not feature organized teams and collective bargaining agreements, experts said. The ATP comprises tournament promoters and players.

“This case is going to tell us a lot about how powerful these individual tour sponsors are going to be in the future,” Geoffrey Rapp, an associate professor of sports law and antitrust at the University of Toledo, said in a telephone interview.

Under questioning from Judge Gregory M. Sleet, the potential jurors displayed scant familiarity with the stakes. None had heard of the case. None had read the morning’s sports pages.

When lawyers read a list of potential witnesses including Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Andy Roddick and James Blake, only eight of the three dozen candidates stood to indicate they recognized those names.

Before the jurors were seated, the lawyers offered a hint of the disputed financial details of the Brave New World plan. MacGill said in open court outside the presence of the jurors that the plan would generate $300 million to $400 million over the next 10 years.

If any figures emerge as evidence in the trial, they could influence whether the star players decide to come down from Toronto to testify, and for which side.



{sorry, didn't mean to post so much 'homework' but there is a lot of information out there about this issue for anyone who wants to read all of it. }
 
Last edited:
“I don’t think the players realize the seriousness of it,” said Bob Bryan, a former member of the ATP’s Player Council, who, with his twin, Mike, is ranked No. 2 in the world in doubles. “Financially, it would be a killer. It could really cripple the ATP. Potentially it maybe could dissolve the ATP.”
Click to expand...

This is what I mean. This is what jumped out at me.

That and the fact that all the players will have to go to Madrid this fall to defend and then go back again in May of next year right before RG.

Wow, Fee. This is quite some research you've done. Thanks for looking out.
 
The antitrust lawsuit in United States District Court promises to reveal financial arrangements of a plan known as Brave New World, an effort by the ATP Tour to reinvigorate the sport.
Click to expand...

So am I right in assuming that the other thing the ATP wants is for Americans to be able to play more hardcourt tournaments overseas -- and less clay -- on the assumption that that will give the American players a better shot at winning?
 
de Villiers steps down

Aug 21 (Reuters) - Sports news in brief from around the world:

Tennis - Etienne de Villiers will step down as executive chairman and president of the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) at the end of the season, the ATP said in a statement.

De Villiers, who joined the ATP in June 2005, was responsible for an overhaul of men's tennis, including the introduction of Hawkeye technology and increasing players' prize money.

The South African has faced opposition from players and tennis officials over plans to replace the Masters Series and downgrade several tournaments, including Hamburg.


This should make a lot of posters happy. I wonder who they'll hire to replace him.
 
I think this was expected after all the controversy and the opposition from the players.I am happy for the news yes,but I just hope they will find someone who really respects and loves tennis,knows what is going on,and can reach out both to the public and the players.Exactly what DeVilliers didn't do.
 
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