Moose Malloy
G.O.A.T.
guess that "selfish" sampras is giving something back to american tennis, huh?
Sampras, Billie Jean King and Chris Evert, as part owners of America’s Tennis magazine, have become significant investors in the Indian Wells championship, helping to buy out the half share owned by IMG and, in the process, seeing off multimillion-dollar sorties from Shanghai and Doha, Qatar — two tournaments that wanted to purchase Indian Wells, take it away and dress it very differently.
Now, thanks in no small part to the trio — who have 42 grand-slam singles titles between them — it is preserved as a jewel of the Californian desert. “This is not a transparent effort,” Ray Moore, co-tournament director with Charlie Pasarell, who own the other 50 per cent share, said. “We’re not just using the names. They have all signed substantial cheques and we’re really excited to have them on board as partners.”
For a long time, it seemed the Pacific Life Open would be lost to the United States, a nation that too often treats with appalling disregard a sport that has bequeathed it so many sporting giants. Pasarell said: “This has been one of the toughest years of my life. I’ve had sleepless nights, as have so many others involved, not knowing if we were ever going to be able to keep the event here.”
“I walked the grounds with him last year,” Moore said, “and Pete said though he was playing a lot of golf, in some ways he was bored. He wanted to get back into tennis in a meaningful way. He said he’d been offered several opportunities but none of them intrigued him. The minute it was put to him about becoming an investor in Indian Wells, he stepped up to the plate.”
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,5205-2067344,00.html
Sampras, Billie Jean King and Chris Evert, as part owners of America’s Tennis magazine, have become significant investors in the Indian Wells championship, helping to buy out the half share owned by IMG and, in the process, seeing off multimillion-dollar sorties from Shanghai and Doha, Qatar — two tournaments that wanted to purchase Indian Wells, take it away and dress it very differently.
Now, thanks in no small part to the trio — who have 42 grand-slam singles titles between them — it is preserved as a jewel of the Californian desert. “This is not a transparent effort,” Ray Moore, co-tournament director with Charlie Pasarell, who own the other 50 per cent share, said. “We’re not just using the names. They have all signed substantial cheques and we’re really excited to have them on board as partners.”
For a long time, it seemed the Pacific Life Open would be lost to the United States, a nation that too often treats with appalling disregard a sport that has bequeathed it so many sporting giants. Pasarell said: “This has been one of the toughest years of my life. I’ve had sleepless nights, as have so many others involved, not knowing if we were ever going to be able to keep the event here.”
“I walked the grounds with him last year,” Moore said, “and Pete said though he was playing a lot of golf, in some ways he was bored. He wanted to get back into tennis in a meaningful way. He said he’d been offered several opportunities but none of them intrigued him. The minute it was put to him about becoming an investor in Indian Wells, he stepped up to the plate.”
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,5205-2067344,00.html
