Steve Simon will relinquish his CEO duties at the ladies’s tennis tour whereas staying on as Government Chairman underneath an organizational restructuring of the WTA introduced Tuesday that he mentioned has been within the works for a number of months and isn’t related to participant complaints that emerged through the season-ending championships final month.
The upcoming modifications in management will embrace the hiring of a brand new CEO who will report back to Simon — as will the CEO of WTA Ventures, the business enterprise with CVC Capital Companions that was shaped this 12 months — and the departure of President Micky Lawler, who is not going to get replaced.
ALSO READ | The Netflix Slam: Nadal vs Alcaraz face-off in March to be streamed dwell on Netflix
Simon mentioned he thinks “our desire is” to “discover a feminine candidate” for the CEO place.
He has led the WTA since succeeding Stacey Allaster in 2015; Lawler was in her position since 2014.
“My focus will go to, clearly, governance. Managing the respective boards and councils. Working instantly with the CEOs of the each day enterprise of the tour. I’ll be capable to spend extra time on the geopolitical points that stay very prevalent to the game and do have an effect on the enterprise,” Simon mentioned in a video interview with The Related Press and BBC from the WTA places of work in St. Petersburg, Florida. “I’ll spend extra time engaged on the strategic path of the group and the challenges that face the group.”
He mentioned that girls’s tennis has seen vital monetary development throughout his tenure.
“I consider we have been a $64 million enterprise in ’16, and we’ll be a $128 million enterprise this 12 months,” Simon mentioned. “And we’re attributable to double that by 2027 with our present marketing strategy projections.”
There even have been troublesome points, such because the suspension — and, later, return — of occasions in China over issues in regards to the well-being of former participant Peng Shuai; the coronavirus pandemic; and ongoing uncertainty in regards to the staging of the WTA Finals.
Throughout this 12 months’s version of that occasion, which was held in Cancun, Mexico, from Oct. 29-Nov. 6 after the location was not introduced till September, gamers complained in regards to the non permanent out of doors court docket created for the competitors. Then-No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka calling the situations “one other degree of disrespect.”
Gamers outlined varied different issues in a letter to Simon and through two conferences with tour management. Among the many subjects have been establishing a assured earnings and protection for maternity go away and harm absences, together with an objection to a deliberate change in guidelines governing necessary event appearances.
“We began these discussions (about altering the WTA management construction) in the summertime time, so that they’re not tied to something that occurred in Cancun or … the notion that it hasn’t been the simplest of years,” Simon mentioned.
He mentioned with “the mixed position” of CEO and Chairman, “you’re going to start out lacking some issues sooner or later in time. There’s simply solely so many hours within the day that you would be able to get to,” so he thought it “makes a whole lot of sense to have any person to take care of the day-to-day enterprise, and … I can take care of extra of the higher-level points that clearly take a whole lot of time.”